Monday Reflections

Good Monday morning from Still Waters Pond!

There's a lot of activity going on here these days.  Just from this morning alone we've got all kinds of comings and goings...

Mama and Papa birds feeding their young, from the smallest to the largest of creatures...

And the youngsters are growing bigger and taller every day....(although I can't see the baby bluebirds, I am quite sure they are getting bigger every day by the amount of grasshoppers and bugs their parents have been delivering to the nest every few minutes!) 

The geese come to visit the baby Sand Hill Crane, "Colt" every day as well. They just seem to be very curious about this youngster toddling around after his parents all day long...

And Mr. Black Cat continues to pay a visit to the birdhouse every day as well, not so much curious as wishful...hoping he'll get a chance to snatch a baby bird if it should make a misstep when it tries to fly. I keep a close watch on him and shoo him away every time I can, but I can't be there all the time.  I just pray when these babies make their debut they will be strong enough to fly high and away quickly!

Out on the pond Mr. Great Blue Heron continues to come and go, fishing in the best spots and preening when the that little itch gets to be too much. LOL.

"Colt" is definitely growing and even starting to lose some of those bright orange fuzzy downy feathers for a little bit of duller browner feathers.  I think he grows 2 inches every day! LOL.

Inside there are signs of spring growth as well...The Tulips and Easter Lilies continue to open up and bloom in anticipation of the sacred events of this Holy Week.

And the new growth on the long needle pine trees have formed their little crosses like they do every spring prior to Easter...

We read in our devotions this morning from Isaiah 42: 8-10

8.  "I am the LORD, that is My name;

and My glory I will not give to another, 

nor My praise to carved images.

9.  Behold, the former things have come to pass,

and new things I declare;

Before they spring forth I tell you of them.

10.  Sing to the LORD a new song,

and His praise from the ends of the earth..."

I think it is very fitting that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ should take place in springtime;  After the long, dark, barren and cold days of winter, which reminds of us the very long, dark, and terrible week that Christ endured during what we call "Holy Week", which is from the time of His Triumphant entry into Jerusalem on "Palm Sunday", His "Last Supper" with His disciples before He was betrayed by Judas, His night of travail in the Garden as He prayed:

Luke 22:41-44

"41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 

42 saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” 

43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 

44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

And then the scourging and mocking and horror He suffered in the mock trial, as He heard those same voices who had only a few days earlier shouted "Hosanna! Praise to the King of Israel!" and now they were vehemently shouting "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"  and though He was innocent, He was nailed to a cross and died an excruciating death.

But just three days later everything changed!  Christ arose from the dead and conquered death forevermore!  

And now everyone understood what Jesus meant when He told Martha not too many weeks earlier at the raising of Lazarus, her brother, from the dead:  (see John 11)

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

John 1:25-26

I've shared this song before just recently, so I won't go into the whole song again, but this is why I can sing, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone! Because I know Who holds the future...and life is worth the living, just because He lives!"

That, in a nutshell, is what Easter is really all about!

Well, I guess got a little carried away there going from baby birds and flowers and life on Still Waters Pond to Easter and the Resurrection!  But that's what this is all about...Easter is so much more than bunny rabbits and Easter eggs...it's new life through faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross of Calvary. These are some serious thoughts to ponder as we go through this holiest of all weeks.  

And like Jesus asked Martha above, we need to ask ourselves the same question, and be sure of our answer.  It's the most important question we can ever respond to:

And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Yes, I believe.  Amen.