Granddad had a strawberry patch in his backyard when I was a kid. He grew Stilwell strawberries, the kind they grow in Stilwell, Ok., The Strawberry Capitol of the World. Mom had a berry patch, but those were never as good as Granddad’s berries. Granddad had a secret to growing the best strawberries, a secret that he didn’t pass on to us. I think it was the manure.
When I was about 7, I remember picking berries just for fun, and thinking, “The sweetest berries are the smallest ones.” I loved to search for the hidden ones, lifting each leaf, and squatting down to see it. The big ones that lay on top of the leaves didn’t seem to me to be as sweet.
Then when I found that one little perfectly ripe strawberry it was gone in an instant, in one bite.
The strawberries we buy at the store are nice, but a little bland. They are big and showy, plump, good color. You expect the sweet strawberry taste, but it tastes just barely enough like a strawberry to make it edible. Life is like that sometimes. The sweetest things are the hidden things that you have to search for, the small things that try to stay hidden from sight.
Holding a sleeping child in your arms.
Singing at the top of your voice on Easter morn, “Up from the grave He arose!”
Turning the first page of a new book.
Making the last stitch on a knitted scarf.
Popping the first ripe cherry tomato into your mouth, unwashed, straight from the garden, on a warm summer morning.
Snapping the asparagus stems off in the garden, then eating one raw before you make it to the kitchen.
Spreading the comforter over the bed so it looks presentable.
In Ecclesiastes 3:11 the Bible says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
It’s the little things that make my life so rich.
Easter Songs
Easter has always been my favorite holiday, I guess, because it was so meaningful to me. Easter is all about the Lord Jesus who died but rose again from the grave to live forever.
If you ask people what they remember most from their childhood about Easter, many will say hunting Easter eggs, or decorating Easter eggs. They might say they always remember getting an Easter basket, or dressing up in a new outfit and new shoes to go to church. Maybe they will remember the big Easter dinner their mother cooked and having all the family around the table.
If you ask me, I would say, I remember the songs. “Up from the grave He arose.” Or maybe “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” And then the old hymn, “He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today.” What about “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross?” And this one, “Christ the Lord is risen today, hallelujah.” “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe…” What about this comparatively new song that is now one of our favorites? “Because He lives I can face tomorrow.”
These songs have a place in our heart and have stood the test of time because they speak to our hearts and they are Biblically correct.
Music had always been very important to me. I sang from the time I was a little girl, sang in chorus in junior high and high school, and still sing in church. I took piano lessons from third grade through my senior year and one year in college. My life has always involved music of one kind or another.
Music was important to Jesus too. The night of Jesus’ betrayal when He shared the Passover meal with His disciples, the Bible says, “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” Mark 14:26 NKJV.
Jesus was a singer too.
Abundance of Things
One of my New Year’s Resolutions this year was to simplify.
Lately I have been trying really hard to get rid of stuff. It is an ongoing battle, a struggle to keep what is necessary and let go of things that I don’t need, don’t love, that don’t fit, and don’t make me smile when I look at them.
I have a closet full of clothes, drawers full of stuff, cabinets full, pantry full, linen closet full. I have books and magazines everywhere– in bookshelves, in the bathroom, on the coffee table. I have 5 sets of dishes, 3 sets still packed away from our move fifteen years ago.
When I unpacked my winter things last fall, most didn’t fit, some never did. Most are outdated and a few in need of repair. The struggle right now is to mix and match the clothes I can wear so I can make it through this season without spending money on clothes.
One thing I have had to buy this winter is shoes. A woman must have shoes. I have lots of shoes, some of which don’t fit and never have but they are so cute. Some of them need to be discarded but I might wear them in the garden this spring.
Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses.” Luke 12:15 NKJV.
My possessions do not determine who I am. My life is more than the name brand of clothing I wear and the kind of purse I carry.
Have you ever thought that hoarding stuff is a form of greed or covetousness? Yes, that was a staggering thought to me too. I guess it is time to start giving more of it away.
No wonder Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Missing in Action
Several years ago the Department of Defense announced that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, 1st Lt. Shannon E. Estill, U.S. Army Air Forces, who was missing in action from World War II, had been identified and returned to his family for burial with full honors. He had been considered missing in action for over 50 years.
Many servicemen went missing during the Vietnam conflict and it appeared nothing was being done to find missing personnel. Several famous movies were made about men who went in alone to recover their missing comrades.
There are many missing-in-action people from our churches these days, those who no longer are with us. No, I don’t mean they are dead. I mean they have quit going to church. The number one reason is that someone in the church did something to hurt them and it was easier not to go back.
Christians, look around this Sunday and think about those from your congregation who are missing. Write their name down and make a note to call them this week and invite them to come back. Sometimes all it takes is one invitation, one person who acts like she cares, that will be the deciding factor in bringing these people back to the church. If you come in contact with someone who has left their church, take that opportunity to invite them to go to church with you this Easter.
Everyone ought to go to church at least on Christmas and Easter to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection. And if every person in town went to church on Easter Sunday, every church would be full.
Are you MIA? Missing in action from your church? If you just can’t go back to that church, find you a church where you can attend.
I know God’s heart’s desire is like mine—that every church in town be full and running over on Easter morning so people can hear the Good News.
The Great Guide
Our neighbor man fished all the time. He fished for crappie, bass, catfish, I guess just about every kind of fish there was. I remember the time he came home from fishing with a giant turtle, and all of us kids played with it. Some even had their pictures taken riding on the back of the turtle.
As far as we were concerned, he didn’t work. He just played around and fished all the time. As I grew up, I learned that he was a well-known fishing guide in northeast Oklahoma, maybe the best in all of Oklahoma. When people planned a fishing trip on Grand Lake, they frequently hired him to take them fishing, since he knew when the fish were biting, where they were located, what the fish were biting on.
I don’t know much about fishing but our neighbor Dutch Faulconer did, and because Dutch had fished so much in Grand Lake, he was a great fishing guide.
The way I understand it, a guide is one who has been where you want to go, has fished for what you want to fish for, and caught what you want to catch. He knows all the right places, because he has been there, lived through it, and brought back the fish to eat.
The Lord Jesus walked the dirt roads of this earth. He lived through all the circumstances of life. He knows what we are going through. He knows the places to go, the best way to walk. He’s the only man ever to walk this earth who didn’t sin. “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses since he had the same temptations we do, though he never once gave way to them and sinned.” Hebrews 4:15 The Living Bible.
“I will instruct you (says the Lord) and guide you along the best pathway for your life; I will advise you and watch your progress.” Psalms 32:8
God is our great Guide in everything we do. Where He leads me, I will follow.
The Real Christmas Tree
When we were kids, we always got our Christmas tree the last day of school before Christmas. We put the tree up on Christmas Eve and left it up until New Year’s Day.
After I had my own home, I couldn’t get in the mood to decorate until Christmas Eve and I usually left my tree up until long after New Year’s Day. One year I even thought about turning my tree into a Valentine tree, a St Patrick’s tree, and an Easter tree, maybe even a 4th of July tree.
It doesn’t seem like Christmas without a tree, decorated with cute little ornaments my children made when they were small, and little ornaments we had when I was a child. There aren’t many of those left now, but I love them.
Of course I love a real cedar Christmas tree. I used to buy a real tree from the fire station every year. I love the smell of a Christmas tree, but an artificial tree is so much easier.
Within the Christmas story is the story of the real Christmas tree, the cross. God became flesh, born of the virgin Mary as the Holy Son of God, Jesus Christ. That’s the beginning of the story that continues with Jesus Christ on the tree, the cross of Calvary, giving Himself completely for the whole world. He died and was buried, but then rose again from the dead as our Savior, seated at the right hand of God, crowned as the King of kings.
“Because Christ also suffered for us,…. who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness.” I Peter 2:21-24 New King James Version.
From the words of the old hymn, The Old Rugged Cross, written by George Bennard, (1873-1958.) “So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.”
From the cross, a true Christmas tree, to a crown.