Nature is awakening from a long winter's nap

Last week, our landscape looked like winter except for the daffodils blooming out by the fence line.  After an early heatwave began a few days ago, all of nature came alive... in a good and not scary way. 

I have always loved Easter even though I did not grow up in a church going family.  My love for Easter and for Christmas are equal but in different ways.  As with most Americans, the Christmas season begins in our family at Thanksgiving and is pretty much celebrated all of December.

The house is decorated during this darkest month of the year, the light brought inside with candles, the Christmas tree, and twinkle lights  Perhaps that is why Christmas causes me to think more inwardly as it is also the season of curling up with a throw, a cat, and a hot beverage to contemplate the birth of Christ.

On the other hand, since we did not attend a liturgical church, Easter was a week to reflect on the life, death, and the Resurrection of Jesus.  Easter day was usually filled with joyful celebration at church and then with a meal that was pretty much the same every year.

Now we were enjoying the return of days filled with longer hours of light, the rebirth of nature (albeit slower here than with my southern friends), and the renewal of the soul.  I often feel like winter is the time to slow down and reflect while spring is the gift God gives us when life returns.  A reflection of the Resurrection that was and a promise of the ultimate renewal to come.

Our Easter season was made more special this year when Stephanie, Elisabeth, and Faith arrived for a quick visit the weekend before Easter.  Faith was to meet the young woman who will be her roommate when she goes to college this fall.  (How is that even possible?) Since I was not able to attend Elisabeth's wedding, it was wonderful that she took time off of work to travel with them.

They returned to New England, stopping along the way home to visit David at his college, in time for Maundy Thursday services.  I was praying a lot that day for safe travels as storms were predicted along the way where they would be driving and where my son was flying back after a conference in the nation's capital.

The ladies arrived home safely, although they had to drive through very heavy rain along the way.  Christopher's flight was hit with severe turbulence and they landed in a thunderstorm. He travels a lot so when he said this was his worst flight ever, it had to be bad.

I had messaged him that there were tornadoes heading from Louisville to Cincinnati and it turns out he was flying over them on his route home. People wonder why I dislike flying. My daughter teases me about being a weather geek.  I blame growing up surrounded by farms and farmers.  Weather is usually a topic of conversation most of the year.

I wonder how much of a mother's prayer life revolves around praying for their children as they drive, fly, etc.?  

I hope your Easter was a good one.  My son and his wife hosted the meal this year and I made and baked the favorites we always serve on our side of the family.  My daughter-in-law's mom did the same thing and we have had joint celebrations long enough that I know what to anticipate at each gathering.  I don't know what is in that orange Jell-o stuff but it is delicious and worth taking extra insulin.

I am still dealing with low blood sugar attacks and consequently moving quite slow on many days.  My doctor has me checking my blood sugar before going to bed each night and eating a snack if necessary but even then, I have either plunged too low (which is extremely dangerous) or my blood sugar rose too much (which is frustrating).

We had a nice conversation at my check up last week about what a wonderful thing the pancreas is and how people take it for granted.  I don't know if he is a Christian but I do remind him that God created all of our parts to be quite amazingly sufficient when they work right. 

There is so much in this life that we do not understand and we have to trust His goodness.  God did not create our illnesses, they came as a result of the fallen world.  However, are you hearing... as Billy Graham titled a book... the approaching hoofbeats?

I am, every day they get louder and louder!  My husband and I were talking about the darkness in the world this morning. As an Eeyore kind of guy, he was saying this world is not one he recognizes, anymore.  He will be glad to leave it. I fully understand where he is coming from but I reminded him what the darkness is telling us... the soon return of Christ to set up His perfect kingdom.

I think prior to 2020, I could give mental assent to the soon return of Christ.  Everything looked like it could be fairly soon.  I would discuss pre-trib or mid-trib rapture with friends but it was something I still thought out in the distant future.  Everything changed in November of 2019 as new laws began to be made and decisions put in place that would change... everything.

We were talking this morning how we never... in a million years never... thought America could change this quickly.  Not to mention the entire world actually looking like we are near End Time wars.  The chessboard is already set in motion.

Why can we go through this time, while not wanting to suffer or have our children suffer in any way, still filled with joy and anticipation?  Because my friends, Aslan is on the move.  Can't you feel Him?  Can't you hear His roar in the distance, becoming closer each day?

Many years ago, I read about a woman who was filled with dread over the coming Tribulation.  So much that it was adversely affecting her life. Until she had a dream where she was looking at a ship's radar and noticed a tiny blip on the screen. She asked God what that blip was and He told her that was the Tribulation years.  Just the tiniest, hardly noticeable, blip on the radar.  She never feared End Times events again after she awoke from that dream.

I have a key chain that I purchased, one for me and one for my daughter, that is small but easily slipped onto my existing key chain.  It shows a favorite quote of Aslan... Courage, Dear Heart. It also has a separate tiny figure of Aslan that reminds me not only of a favorite character from literature but of the Lion of Judah.

As we walk through these coming months and years, what better advice can anyone give but from the Lion who came back to life because his enemy did not know the deeper magic (the Narnia magic) existed. Courage, dear heart.

Until next time...

Mentioned in this Blog Post

Narnia key chain... here.

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