Friday Foto Friends...Amazing Transformation!

Here it is Friday again (but I am posting on Thursday night)...and sadly our dear friend Debbie from Breathing in Grace, who has been our "hostess with the mostest" for Friday Foto Friends for the past few years, has come to a point in her life where she really is not able to keep hosting this weekly gathering.  We totally understand, but will truly miss you, Debbie, and pray that God will continue to bless you with good health, peace, and joy in all that you do. Thank you for bringing us together...and now we hope someone else will step up to the plate and take this little weekly group on.  If you think you'd like to, please talk to Debbie (see link above)...and she can fill you in on the details.  I would offer to do it, but things are just to uncertain in my life right now...still trying to sell our house and possibly move...and I just don't feel like I can take on anything else right now.

That being said, I still love to post photos on Friday, because I find myself thinking about it during the week and saving some up to share with you on Friday. Sometimes I just can't wait and go ahead and share them earlier in the week, but "normally" I try to have something to share on Friday, and I look forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to all week as well. 

Here's a few of my pictures from the past few days:

 The hummingbird comes and goes to the feeder at my kitchen window all day long...

She sometimes sits still long enough for me to get a good picture:

We've been seeing the deer again in the evenings...these are just two of the usual 6-8 deer that are out there:

I got a new flag for my front porch this past week....I love the little chickadees and the pretty church bird house...

The Swallow Tailed Kites are still out there perching in the trees in the early mornings, and gliding around most of the day:

 Here are two of them in trees near each other.

This lizard was climbing up our window on the sun porch...he has his eye on the violets inside the window...

 The little green apples are growing bigger every day!!!

I apologize that I haven't been around much lately to visit you all, as you are probably aware that my brother passed away earlier this week after a long battle with leukemia.  Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts expressed on my last post regarding this. I do appreciate each and every one of you, and your sympathies and thoughtfulness mean more to me than you can imagine. 

On the morning of my brother's passing, I woke up to the phone ringing, with the call from my niece that he had passed during the night.  I kind of expected it, as I had awakened in the night around 4 a.m. and thought to myself that he was most likely already gone. My niece confirmed that he passed peacefully in his sleep around 3:00 a.m.  Even though I was very sad to see him go, I was relieved for his sake, as he truly was suffering, and he was ready to depart from this world.  I am so very thankful that I made that emergency trip up last weekend to see him one last time before he passed. We had such a good visit and he was so happy to have us there with him. God was so good to grant us that special time together. 

And so, on that morning after receiving the call, I took a little walk to the neighborhood pond just to spend a few moments alone with the Lord and feel close to Him and to my brother's spirit. I don't mean that in a weird way...please don't misunderstand me...but I just needed to feel that sense of God's Presence along with the comfort that my brother was truly with the Lord at that moment. There were no astounding revelations, but this is what I did see that made me smile:


This dragonfly doing handstands on the tip of a fishing rod...

I especially liked this because my brother loved fishing...

 Don't you love the way the sunlight is shining through these translucent wings?

This just really struck me as something special, but I didn't fully understand why, until I looked up more information about dragonflies and their significance.  Now please don't misunderstand this either...I am not a person who spiritualizes animals, etc., but it seems as though often when there has been a death in our family, God has given me a special gift of comfort through one of His creatures. 

Let me share with you one quote from an article that I read entitled 'What Does a Dragonfly Symbolize?"  I found this very interesting:

"When the dragonfly larvae, or nymphs as they are called, are ready, they shed their casing and the graceful adult insect emerges. As much as this represents change, it can also be taken as a symbol of death, when the soul leaves the body. Also that the soul, after leaving the body, resides in a different realm, can be likened to the fact that the life of the dragonfly is also spent in two "realms". While the larval stage of the insect that is spent underwater, can be likened to life on earth, the emerging of the adult insect that has wings and is airborne, can be compared to the soul that is free from the body."

Wow! I had no idea...but what a powerful symbol of the new state of my brother's "life"...as his soul left his earthly body, he is now set free from that body and at that moment was "airborne" and bound for heaven, and new life everlasting.

Also, a quote from this same article,

"In Native American legends, the dragonfly is a symbol of resurrection, and renewal after hardship. "

How marvelous! My brother had just gone through a horrible time in the past year...suffering greatly through many months of treatments, constant traveling back and forth to the clinic where he had to undergo chemo and other painful and difficult procedures, and definite hardship on his body and his life in general. And now, on this very morning, he was enjoying a definite resurrection and renewal...a new life...a resurrection from the painful, suffering dead body into life everlasting in heaven!

Jesus said to Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus (see John 11:1-44) in verse 25:

"I am the resurrection and the life.  

He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live."

My brother was not what one would consider a deeply religious person, but he definitely believed in Christ as His Lord and Savior...I know, because I asked him.  I already knew it, but just wanted to confirm it...for his own sake as well as my own heart's comfort.  And he was looking forward to heaven, and the rest and peace that would bring.  And this little dragonfly standing on his head on the tip of the fishing rod was a sweet little extra confirmation to me.

Click here for another interesting article about the dragonfly, entitled "God's Dragonfly".  I didn't know there was so much symbolism and interesting information about dragonflies out there...and now when I see a dragonfly, I know I will think about my brother and rejoice that he is free from his earthly body of death, and rejoicing in the amazing transformation and beautiful new heavenly body, where no sickness or death or pain will ever corrupt again.  Praise God!

Have a blessed weekend my friends.  Go take some pictures of something special today! God may have things to tell you in those "pictures".

Taking a little break -- Updated

UPDATE: 4/30/2019, My brother Russell passed away into his eternal home early this morning.  Rest in peace, Russell Tedlie Mursch,  October 6, 1943-April 30, 2019. 

Dear Friends,
 You may have noticed that I haven't posted anything in a little while. I fully intended to, but last week we had a family emergency, and that kind of changed things.  Most of you are probably aware that my brother has been battling leukemia for the past year, and Thursday afternoon we received a call that he was being sent home from the hospital (after almost 2 weeks in there with pneumonia, which I was unaware of), and would be going on Hospice care at home. Since I had not seen my brother since last summer, I knew I needed to go as soon as possible.

So my sister came and joined me and my son and we loaded up the car and headed to Georgia (from Florida) early Friday morning. Thankfully, my son was the driver by choice.  Our spouses all stayed home to take care of things at home since this was a quick trip without much time to make plans.

We were so thankful to arrive safely Friday evening after a very long arduous trip through Friday rush hour traffic through Atlanta. Anyone who has been there understands what that is like!

I was especially thankful that our other brother stayed and waited for us to arrive so that we four siblings could all be together again one more time.  Then he had to head back home to North Carolina that night.

It was a bittersweet time together, but oh, so special, and my brother was so very thankful to have us come all that way.  He said he felt kind of guilty that we made that long trip to see him because he was supposed to be so sick, and yet he said he didn't feel quite so bad after all! We assured him that we were quite happy to be there and that we were also glad that he didn't feel so bad, and he certainly shouldn't feel guilty!  In spite of a lot of discomfort and pain, he managed to stay positive and genuinely happy that we were all there.

The next day his kids and some of his grandkids also came so we could all be together again.

I know we don't always like to look at pictures of sick people, especially when we may not even know them, but what I wanted to share was the sweetness of this time together.  Some of these people above are step-children and step-grandchildren...but they are all there to show love and respect and to help in any way possible.  One of the young men above is the boyfriend of my brother's daughter, and he spent the whole day working outside in the yard, digging up poison ivy everywhere it was growing rampantly out of control. He said he wasn't allergic to it and it didn't affect him...so he stayed after it all day long! What a kind and thoughtful thing to do, as it was growing in places where people would need to walk and get in and out of cars, etc., so this was a big deal.  The Step-son and daughter in law brought food for everyone, enough to feed all of us for two days and then some...such a blessing! The others helped with lifting, moving, running errands, and even entertaining us all....it was a wonderful time with a beautiful family...some of whom I had never met yet because they are newly added to the family!

If you are on my Facebook, you have already seen most of these pictures. But for those of you who aren't, I wanted to share a few pictures of things in and around my brother's home that I enjoyed seeing:

These next few pictures are of the boat that my brother was building before he got sick. Yes, he literally built the boat from blueprints that he ordered...it is amazing (and actually it isn't the first boat he has built, but I don't have pictures of the others).  It is almost finished, but sadly he won't be able to finish it and christen it with a name and sail away in it.  We asked him what he would like to name it and he said it wasn't going to be up to him, but to whomever took over finishing it and using it.

(My other brother and my son, looking things over )

This is the Elk head of the huge elk he killed in Idaho many many years ago.  I loved to hear him tell the story of how he managed to get that elk head and all the meat down the side of a mountain to get it back home. It was quite a tale!!! And he and his family enjoyed the meat for quite some time. 

These are just a few things in his house that he mentioned to me that he either built or liked and had a story to them... This is a bench made from an interesting slab of wood that he found in our father's workshop years ago...

This antique cherry drop leaf table was in our old farm home where I was born, and my mother told my brother that he christened it with his pablum when he was a baby!!

My brother built this beautiful bed:

And he said he found this old antique desk chair somewhere, and it was a mess and ready for the trash heap, but he took it and restored and refinished it and he said he absolutely loved this old chair:

I loved seeing this painting of a duck in his office...because our father painted this for him...

And this painting my father also painted many, many years ago, and it always hung in the living room of our home where I grew up. I was so happy to see it again here in my brother's house. Made me feel close to "home" again.

These lovely bearded irises were growing all around the front of the house...they were so pretty:

And I loved this front porch, where several of us gathered and sat and visited and laughed and enjoyed being together...

When we left his home Saturday evening we knew it would be the last time we would see my brother on this earth. We said our farewells, but only until we gather together in heaven again someday. He mentioned that he could envision our mother and dad waiting for him "out there, somewhere beyond those trees..."  (this was the view from his bed in their lovely sunroom)

This beautiful sunset as we drove out of his neighborhood and back to our hotel reminded me of the song: "Beyond the Sunset"

"Beyond the sunset
Oh, blissful morning
When with our Savior
Heaven's begun
Earth's toiling ended
Oh, glorious dawning
Beyond the sunset
When day is done
(Spoken)
Beyond the sunset
No clouds will gather
No storms will threaten
No fears annoy
Oh, day of gladness
Oh, day unending
Beyond the sunset
Eternal joy
Beyond the sunset
Oh, glad reunion
With our dear loved ones
Who've gone before
In that fair homeland
We'll know no parting
Beyond the sunset
Forever more"

The next morning we headed back home. Thankfully we arrived safely after another long day, but without all of the traffic of the previous trip.  Not long after I got home, my other brother called to say that he had heard from our brother's wife that Hospice had been there to check on him, and they believe that he is in a rapid decline and probably won't last the week.  So, yes, we are very thankful that we went when we did and that our brother was still alert enough to enjoy our visit and communicate some special things with us, and vice versa. 

Because of the expectations of these next days and weeks, I will probably not be spending much time blogging. I know many of you have already been praying for our family, and I truly, truly appreciate it.  I will let you know as I can when things happen...but I just didn't want you to wonder what happened to me if you don't hear from me for awhile.

God bless you all...and hug your families close.  Take care of any "issues" that could possibly be between you while you can.  None of us know when our day will come that we are called to our heavenly home...so don't put off til tomorrow what needs to be done now!   And most importantly, be sure of your relationship with Christ! There is nothing more important than this! 

What Easter Means To Me - Updated from Easter 2014

4/20/2019: I's been FIVE years since I originally wrote this post for Easter.  But the message is still the same five years later, and I expect it will always be this way...the closer I get to heaven...the more excited I get...because of what Jesus did for us on Calvary...but especially because of what He did for us on Easter morning...When He came out of the tomb...victorious over death, and ensuring for all believers LIFE EVERLASTING!!  Praise God!!!!    Please read on...

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
Stained Glass Window-First Presbyterian Church, Ocala, FL.

I originally wrote this post for Easter 2014.  A lot has changed in our lives since then* (For the update on this please click on this link, written 5/25/2014), but even though our son has since passed on to heaven, (May 25, 2014) nothing has really changed in how I view Easter.  It is even more significant and precious to me now, knowing that I have a son waiting for me in heaven someday.  

What Easter Means To Me
(Originally written 4/18/2014)

Because I have a precious son standing on the threshold of heaven’s gate, Easter has a lot more significance to me this year.

Fouryears ago we received some shocking news regarding our son...a diagnosis so grim that it struck fear into our hearts and caused us to ask, "Why Lord? What good could possibly come from this assault on our son's body?  We didn't know what kind of plan God had...and as a mother, to be honest, I truly did not want to see our son go through all the suffering and pain of fighting the formidable foe of cancer.  It just didn't seem fair.  But don't stop reading here...

On the day after the crucifixion, Jesus' mother and his disciples were hiding and afraid. They did not understand what was happening, even though Christ had tried over and over again to tell them what was going to take place, but their hearts were broken, their eyes were still blinded by doubt and confusion, and they just couldn't see how anything good could come out of His death.  They did not realize that God had a plan… 

On Easter morning all of God’s creation was waiting...waiting for the Easter sunrise...waiting for God to show them the next part of His plan…not realizing that they would soon hear an angel proclaim the astounding message,

"Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!"

(Luke 24:5-6)

The angel reminded the disciples of what Christ had taught them about His death and resurrection, and then “they remembered His words…” 

Perhaps they then remembered what Jesus told them in John14:19~

“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.

Because I live, you will live also.”

And then His words all began to make sense…both to His disciples…and also to me. When Christ said “It is finished” as He died on the cross, death became a conquered foe. That was not the end of the story, but the beginning.   When (and if) my son loses his earthly battle against this vicious cancer, that will not be the end of his story, but the beginning. As he passes over that threshold, heaven’s gate will open wide to receive him joyfully.  Isaiah 25:8 says, “Death is swallowed up in victory!”  “O Death, where is your sting? O death, where is your victory?” (I Corinthians 15:55)

Since “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16), I can stare death in the face and not be afraid of saying goodbye to my son when the time comes. Because of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, my son will also live. And so will I. And so will you.

And that’s what Easter means to me.

Our son Matthew, just a few months before he entered heaven's portals

I just found this video of  a very special  Easter song, "He's Alive!" by Don Francisco, which is sung from the perspective of the Apostle Peter.  I think you may appreciate it.  I remember singing this song back in the late 70's...  "He's Alive! He's Alive! He's Alive and I'm forgiven, heaven's gates are open wide! He's Alive! He's Alive! He's Alive!"    Hallelujah!  That is what Easter is all about!!!

New Life Out of Death

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live."  

John 11:25

This picture is a mushroom found growing in the decaying birdseed on the ground this morning...amazing!!!

Have a blessed SONday my friends!!