Why Finns Love da Yoop (and Vice Versa)

Alan was born and bred in da Yoop (translation into English:
“the Upper Peninsula of Michigan”).  I was a transplant who spent her teen years in Michigan’s gorgeous upper peninsula…long enough to fall in love with both da Yoop and da husband!  In the spring, buttercups and other flowers popped up here and there, and in the summer, Alan’s mom planted red geraniums in flower boxes. Da Yoop is largely rural and wooded, a place of quiet industry  where they say “people work to live, not live to work.” In da Yoop, people love the great outdoors and are content with simplicity. Historically, many Finnish immigrants settled in Michigan’s upper peninsula  because they felt at home with both the climate and the culture.   During my years in da Yoop, I had 2 spiritual moms who were sisters…100% Finnish, 100% beautiful, and 100% devoted to the Lord.  They (and their husbands) would be nearly 100 if they were still alive, but they’ve all gone on to be with the Lord. I still miss them…a lot! They taught me (and modeled) so much of what I know about how to be a wife and mom that I always say I have a Finnish heart.  Mommu (Mother Anita) loved birches…and by some miracle the Lord allowed a clump of birches to survive in her front yard, even though she lived too far south for paper birches to flourish after she was married. She used to tell about getting all cleaned up in their sauna, using birch switches. I still think of Mommu whenever I see anything made from birch! When we lived in da Yoop, we had a sauna too…and loved getting cleaned up as a family Saturday nights…even rolling in the snow the way Finns do! (Did you know there are 5 million inhabitants and over 3 million saunas in Finland??) I also grew up spiritually at the feet of Mother Linda, who was Mommu’s sister. Their father’s first wife and children died in a storm at sea trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and the two sisters’ own mother (married to their father 10 years later) died in childbirth with twins when Anita was 3 and Linda only 18 months. Their father gave the twins to two childless couples but bravely reared the other 5 (the oldest was only 8) on his own. Amazingly, both women remember their childhood as a time of contentment and joy. Despite their humble childhood, both girls worked extremely hard during the depression to achieve excellent educations. On top of that, they ended up marrying highly educated men, one an orthopedic surgeon and the other a dentist. So, in their later years, all their hard work made them both amply wealthy. Both of these lovely Finnish ladies were wonderful hostesses, and whenever I visited, we would always share tea…and often other treats too. So, it’s no surprise that when Alan and I went to Finland, we delighted in the opportunity of spending an afternoon visiting a Finnish family near Helsinki. That’s right! Helsinki, Finland. But, at their home, Alan and I both felt like we were back home in da Yoop! In fact, don’t these pictures look familiar? This could be our lake! (Here’s our lake for real, but all the rest of the pictures were taken in Finland during our spring visit!)No wonder Finns love da Yoop, and Yoopers love Finland! I often think that heaven will seem wonderfully comforting when we get there —even though we’ve never been there before—because of all we’ve experienced here on this earth…the love and lessons passed down to us by our spiritual mentors, the accounts from Scripture about those who’ve gone before us, and the daily opportunities of living.Are you looking forward to an eternity in heaven? I am, and I hope you are too!

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).