Wacky Wednesday

God Bless America! (The view from my front porch this morning)

Some of my blogging friends do a Wednesday Hodgepodge, and some also do a "Whimsical Wednesday", which usually displays a lovely evening or wedding gown with choices of shoes to match for you to decide...and I love all of the above reading and entertaining posts for the middle of the week.  Not to detract or distract from these wonderful posts, but I thought I would do  my own version of all of the above, and have a "Wacky Wednesday", for today only (maybe). 

Our friend Debbie from "Breathing in Grace" is currently somewhat inactive on her blog, but she stays pretty active on her Facebook Page "Breathing In His Grace, Breathing Out His Praise", and today she posted something pretty funny.  See the lovely ladies below:

Now, I just love this picture...as a matter of fact, I loved it so much that I wanted to join in the fun.  I hope this will inspire you to consider the same idea and share your new "Easter Dress" for online church this year. I think in light of the fact that we are all having to sacrifice being able to attend church services on Easter (and the rest of the month), it's quite all right to have a little fun with this. We could all use a few good laughs, don't you think?

Little did I know when I was preparing for my hospital visit last month (one month ago tomorrow! Wow!), that the lovely aqua blue duster with the pretty pink roses on it would actually become my new Easter dress!

  Just needed to add an Easter bonnet and my lovely white gloves...

Oh, and my matching socks, and I am all ready for our Easter Sunday online service!! 

So how about you?  I hope you will be bold and daring enough to share your Easter outfit for this year. Let's have a little fun in the midst of the craziness of this current situation.

Meanwhile, of course we are not forgetting the true meaning of Easter, and that it is the very foundation of our faith.  What Jesus did for us on Calvary, when He sacrificed His very life so that we might be set free from our sins and have eternal life forever with Him in heaven...well, that is the most amazing and wonderful gift we could ever receive.  Regardless of where we are, Easter is a time for celebration.  As Christians, we celebrate the resurrected life every day we live.  The whole idea of having a new "Easter dress" originated from this celebration of new life...all things new, because in Christ we are a new creation:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)

17. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

So wherever you are, my prayer for you today is that first of all you are well...and that you are safely protected in your home (as much as possible), and that even in the midst of all this enforced isolation from the world, you are spending time with the Lord and celebrating the blessing of freedom from sin and death...yes...death. In Christ, we have eternal life...we may have to cross through death's door from this life to the next...but because of Jesus, we have the hope of everlasting life with Him...no more sickness, no more sorrow...no more isolation!  We will be set free from the cares of this world forever.  

John 11:25-26 says:

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?”

Jesus may have been talking to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, in this particular passage, but the question is still there for you and me today:  "Do YOU believe this?"  That is possibly the most important question you will ever be asked in life.  My prayer is that each and every one of us can strongly say, "Yes, Lord, I believe".  

Have a blessed and holy and happy Easter season, my friends. 

Now, let's see those Easter dresses! Come on...be a sport!! 

You have from now until Easter to decide and share!!  

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!!

You Are Now Entering The Secret Garden - Updated 1-21-2018 One Year Later

I can't believe it has been a whole year since the creation of "The Secret Garden".  I was looking at these pictures earlier today, and marveling at how green and lush everything was at this time last year...and that we were wearing shorts and t-shirts!!  Not so this past week! We had several days of freezing temperatures (yes! here in Florida!)  And the picture that I will show you at the end of these original pictures will show you how the garden looks today.  

Original Post 1/22/2017:

You are now entering The Secret Garden...

Welcome!

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name,

For the Lord is good;

His mercy is everlasting,

and His truth endures to all generations."

Psalm 100:4-5

This sign and the Welcome sign above were lovingly created for the Secret Garden by my sign-maker son!

For those of you who have been following this story, you will be happy to see that "The Secret Garden" is truly becoming a reality.  God has been blessing this sacred place...yes, I call it "sacred", because it has been "set apart for the worship or service of a deity" (definition of sacred according to the Merriam Webster dictionary), and in this case, the "deity" is none other than God Almighty, Our Lord and Creator.  And most definitely this beautiful secret garden is a place of worship and praise to our God, as well as a place of service, or ministry to His children.  I am His child, and the Lord ministers to me in this place as He speaks to me through His Word, His creation, and His Holy Spirit. Not only me, but to anyone who wishes to come to this place and sit in His Presence for prayer, meditation of His Word, and/or encouragement between friends.  That is my prayer and desire for this "Secret Garden".... may it honor and glorify God in every way.

So that being said, let me take you on a tour of the newest additions to the garden....
Oh, Hello Mr. (Mrs.?) Chickadee!  Welcome to The Secret Garden...

I believe she has already taken up residence here!  How amazing is that???  And I was concerned that because I could not put any bird feeders into the Secret Garden, due to the bears that roam nearby, that I wouldn't have much bird activity to observe....guess I was mistaken!!!

"Look at the birds of the air,

for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns;

yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?"

Matthew 6:26

Perhaps we will one day welcome a family of chickadees to the garden!

 Oh wait! This same chickadee flew over to the other birdhouse and deposited more seeds into this one as well!  Could she have two nests?  Two families?  Hmmm...we will have to watch these interesting developments...

"But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you;

And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;"

"Who among all these does not know 

that the hand of the Lord has done this,

in Whose hand is the life of every living thing,

and the breath of all mankind?"

Job 12: 7, 9-10

"Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;

Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises."

Psalm  98:4

"How lovely is Your tabernacle, 

O Lord of hosts!

My soul longs, yes, even faints 

for the courts of the Lord;

My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may lay her young...

even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,

My King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;

They will still be praising You."

Psalm 84:1-4

(Jan. 2017) Meanwhile, back at the workshop, my two wonderful sons are finishing up the bench that was the inspiration for this marvelous Secret Garden project...

 Here they are putting on the crowning glory to the bench..."Mom's Secret Garden".... and I am in awe...

and then they placed it in the garden....

 and I am overwhelmed with the beauty of it all....

 Here's my "sign-maker son", who created all of the signs for the garden, including the "crown" for the bench...

And here I am with my other wonderful son, who found this bench in the dumpster and restored it for my Christmas surprise gift...setting the wheels in motion for the creation of this beautiful space....

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

and to sing praises to Your name,

O Most High;

To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,

and Your faithfulness every night,

On an instrument of ten strings,

on the lute,

and on the harp,

with harmonious sound.

For You, Lord,

have made me glad

through Your work;

I will triumph in the works of

Your hands.

O Lord, How great are Your works!

Your thoughts are very deep."

Psalm 92:1-5

Thank you for joining me in this visit to The Secret Garden. I do hope you will come often and enjoy the peace and beauty of this sacred place...and give praise and glory to God.

Back to the future:
1/21/2018, one year later:

Yikes! What a difference a freeze makes!

All those lovely ferns were bitten by the frost...but actually the frost has done me a favor.  The ferns were getting too overgrown and I didn't know how I was going to thin them out...and God took care of it for me! And they will grow back in no time at all with a little rain and warm temperatures...which we had today!

This reminds me of the story in John 15:1-8, about the "Vine and the Branches"...

Jesus said in verses 1 -2:
"I AM the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, 
and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, 
that it may bear more fruit."

Verses 4-5
"Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, 
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, 
unless you abide in Me.
I Am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit;
for without Me you can do nothing..."

This year  (2018) my "One Word" in Renew.  I think I am in a kind of "pruning" season of life...old things are being snipped away little by little, and God is renewing me and helping me to "bear much fruit" in the process...at least I hope that is going to happen. Just like these ferns, they have been frozen down to the ground so that all the old leaves have been stripped off and fallen into the dirt.  Out of that dirt will spring up new life, fresh, vibrant and green.  Old things have passed away, and they will become brand new.

Just like what it says in II Corinthians 5:17~
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!"


I am excited to see what NEW things the Lord is going to do in my life in this year. 
How about you?

Waking Up to New Life

"Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions fail not.

They are NEW EVERY MORNING;

Great is Your faithfulness.

'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul,

'Therefore I hope in Him!'

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,

To the soul who seeks Him."

Lamentations 3:23-25

This was the sight that met me when I opened our drapes and looked outside our bedroom window early this morning!  This absolutely perfect Giant Swallowtail butterfly was resting on the holly tree, and when I went outside to take its picture it didn't even attempt to move.  The sun was still coming up and it was still a little too dark to get a really good picture, so I thought I would go back out when it was a little brighter, and he was gone.  I feel so blessed that I was able to capture this picture at all!  Ordinarily I wouldn't have even opened the drapes that early, but there was a "red sky" sunrise shining through the drapes, and I didn't want to miss it...and look at this wonderful surprise that God had waiting for me!

I wondered just why the butterfly chose this particular tree to rest on perhaps through the night?  Maybe he felt safe there, close to the house and away from possible predators...or maybe somehow he knew that there were pictures of butterflies hanging on the wall just inside this window!?

Do you see him through the window below?

Whatever the reason, to me it was a definite blessing and gift from God...like the verses from Lamentations above...

"Because His compassions fail not, 

They are NEW every morning...Great is Your Faithfulness!"  

What a beautiful way to start the day! Praise God!!

Let's Sing along with and old favorite hymn:
"Great Is Thy Faithfulness"

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father, There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.  Refrain: “Great is Thy faithfulness!”  “Great is Thy faithfulness!” Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— “Great is Thy faithfulness,”  Lord, unto me! 2 Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon and stars in their courses above, Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. 3 Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! © 1923. Ren. 1951 Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188 www.hopepublishing.com