Saturday, March 22, 2008

Resurrection Sunday

It's the day before Easter, or as I like to call it: Resurrection Sunday! Our whole world seems to get caught up in the Spring ... Bunnies ... Chickies ... Candy ... aspect of this time of year and barely pays any tribute to our Savior, Jesus Christ. The very word, Easter, has absolutely nothing to with Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. I don't feel like looking it up but it comes from either the Latin or Greek and is the name of a goddess ... Aestre ... or something like that ... she was quite fertile and that would explain rabbits and new life for this time of year!

Sadly, I bought into the commerciality of this time of year a bit more than I should have, though it has improved. When the kids were really little, we had "Easter Baskets" with candy and toys. Then when they got older, we skipped the comercial festivities of Easter and waited until "Bunny Day." Bunny Day was an idea from our friends, the DeRitters. They would choose a nice, warm, day in April or May and having purchased all their "stuff" at half price after Easter, would proceed to hide eggs out in the yard and wherever ... the kids would know it was Bunny Day becasue they would find their Bunny Day Baskets hanging on their doorknobs in the AM.

Advantages:

1. Weather was always perfect 'cause you picked the day.
2. Kids love supspense... never knowing what day it would be.
3. Candy and stuff were cheap.
4. Your family could focus on Easter as "Resurrection Sunday!"

However, MY kids always seemed to find where I hid the candy! For them, Bunny Day ended up being whatever day they found the "hidden" candy!

Now, I just hide things around the house ... inside this year ... for my oldest granddaughter to find. I don't wait for Bunny Day since we don't get to see her that often.

So, as you celebrate Resurrection Sunday, may you carefully and reverently, meditate on Jesus' gift of salvation! The cost of that gift was everything, to Him. The price, his very life. His blood, the final, atoning sacrifice for our sins. If you have never confessed your sins before God and trusted Jesus as your Savior, now is the BEST and PERFECT time! Then I'll see you in Heaven, if not before!!!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Wooo Hooo! A little late, but If this works I'll be a happy blogger!

This is Isabella aka Bella/Belly/etc ... and she has a voice! She would like to tell you in her own words what she thinks about the book she is holding, and the cat that is sitting near her. She really liked her Papa's pen ... having already taken it out of his pocket, we thought at first she wanted to write an essay, but truly, she just wanted to vocalize :-)

Thursday, March 6, 2008

March Comes in Like a Lion

"If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb." My mom always said this and I believed her implicitly! I have not done the research to find out where this saying originated, but as I grew older, I realized that a whole lot more people besides my mom shared this saying ... one that seemed to prove more right than wrong! But then again, this is spring for you ... the snow and winds of winter seem to give their last hurrah in March then make way for those milder temperatures, often accompanied by rain ... but that's ok! We need the rain to soften the earth for nature's seeds to germinate and grow. Who but our clever God could arrange such a transformation we call "nature" on His own earth! Yet, we plant and cultivate and water and prune and step back and say to ourselves (and maybe to others,) "Just look at MY garden! Isn't it pretty?" MY ... just two letters and yet it can bring to mind the selfishness that creeps into our souls if we are not careful ... not prayerful. I'm speaking from experience, here :-)

So, here's to God's Garden! Be it flowers and vegetables ... or our creative and intelligent brains where God continues to plant seeds, I have to remember to give Him the glory! Now, I have to get busy and begin planting the little vegetable and flower seedlings so I can watch God work on the outside... while he works on the inside! GO GOD!