When I was a young girl, we had a swing set in our backyard. I adored swinging, pumping my legs and pulling with my arms on the chains and going so high that the a-frame legs would rock up out of their ground settings. When I got as high as I dared without tipping the whole set over, I would launch out. Carried by momentum, I would soar through the air (imaginary cape floating behind me) and land in a crouch on the grass. I had achieved flight. The freedom was breathtaking. Jumping out of swings, sliding down the tallest slide. Spinning on the round-a-bout with my head back and…

Sometimes in the Spring, when our neighborhood association is late mowing the empty lot next to our house, the grass gets covered in small yellow flowers. I happen to love seeing them and am happy with the tardiness in upkeep. I know they are Dandelions, and I also know that most people only see them as obnoxious weeds. I’m not most people. These little wildflowers have beauty. They are also, surprisingly, both edible and potentially useful in medicinal ways. (Google Dandelions and see what you can learn about them.) As a child, I loved blowing the seed puffs and watching them float away. Still do, when given the opportunity. I…

The two of us are adventurers, sometimes foolhardy but always delighted by the challenge of accomplishment and the lure of the unknown. We went camping last week. Seven days and nights in a tent at our favorite mountain campsite, during which time we experienced the thrill of victory (setting up camp) and the agony of defeat (taking two days to get over it). Well, when you’re in your sixties, nothing is as easy as it used to be. Still, the beauty and majesty of Nature revealing the invisible attributes of the Creator were breathtaking, and we spent most of the days in quiet contemplation, meditation and prayer (Romans 1:20). Moss…

He is risen! Jesus defeated death and rose from his grave. What must it have been like for those closest to him? They witnessed with their own eyes his very brutal murder. They wept for him and wondered what the future would hold. They were torn between their love for him and fear for their own lives. In those hours between the evening of his death and the morning of his resurrection, they were laid low in their grief and uncertainty. How can we begin to imagine what they felt and experienced when they realized he was alive? Not dead. Not buried. Not gone. Alive and present. Jesus, the man,…

Jesus said, ” “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, this is the one who will save it.  For what good does it do a person if he gains the whole world, but loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:23-25 NASB) There are many deaths in this life. Some are easier than others. There is the death of your own preference when giving hospitality to those who don’t eat the way you do. There is the relinquishing of control when working with your teammates on a…