It's Good Friday Now...But Easter's Coming!

 Yes, today is Good Friday, April 3, 2026.  

As I went outside early this morning to put out our flag, I was struck by the beauty of the skies...beautiful, and yet kind of moody and foreboding...as if they knew what this day was all about.

As I placed the crown of thorns on the cross, I was once again struck by how sharp they are, and how painful they must have been as they were forced down upon Christ's head as they mocked Him and hailed Him as the King of the Jews in jest...

This past week we took a little ride and I saw these thistle plants blooming alongside the road, so I asked hubby to pull over so I could take some pictures...Once again, I was struck by how painful those thorns would be if I happened to bump into them or tried to pick the flower from the stem...

The flower certainly is beautiful by itself...but I know better than to try and pick it for a bouquet...

Oh My! Once I again I was blessed with the sudden appearance of a beautiful Swallowtail Butterfly who wanted to get some nectar from the thistle flower! He didn't seem to be afraid of the thorns at all...

I was amazed at how this magnificent creature showed up just as I approached the plant...I felt like it was a gift from God at that particular moment...a reminder that He is always very close to us...and also that His Son endured the pain of those thorns just for us...

Because He loved us so much...He was willing to go to the cross and die for our sins so that we might be saved...

What a beautiful reminder...

Thank You, Lord, for what you did for me and for all mankind on that day...and what you are still doing for us today.

So, as I decided to share those pictures today for Good Friday, I remembered that I had already shared something very similar here many years ago, and have revisited it several times through the years.  I thought I should come up with something new today, but this message really says it all and I can't think of anything more to say,  so: 

I am revisiting this post again for today, Good Friday, April 3, 2026.  The message is still the same. May we honor and revere His Holy Name today...

Original Message 3/30/2018:

Dear  Friends...Please bear with me as I share these pictures with you and tie them into Good Friday...a very sacred and Holy Day...The day our Lord was crucified for our sins...so that we might live forever with Him in heaven one day! What an amazing day this is...

Sunday morning as we went forward to take communion, I knelt before the altar to pray, and I was struck by the emblems displayed there on the communion table...the whole of Holy Week was right there before my eyes...The palms for Palm Sunday,  The Bread and the Cup for the Last Supper, and the cross with the crown of thorns that Jesus wore...

 and upon a closer look, I was shocked to see the nails that pierced His hands and feet, and the whip of cords that struck His back and body over and over again, and the money bag with the thirty pieces of silver that Judas received for betraying our Lord...

These items took my breath away...I wasn't expecting to see them there...and it brought me face to face with the agony that our Lord endured that week on my behalf...and as I ate the bread and drank the cup, I prayed that God would forgive my sins and make me worthy of His shed blood...I am only worthy because of His shed blood...His sacrifice that made me whole and declared me to be holy...what a humbling and beautiful experience...such joy in knowing Christ died for me...because He loved me! And He died for YOU, too, because He loves YOU.  I hope you know this to be true in your own life...

Earlier last week during one of our walks I noticed this thistle plant growing alongside the road...look at those thorns...can you imagine the pain of bumping into this plant?  Now imagine having a crown of thorns forced upon  your head...and nails hammered into your hands and feet...No, I can't imagine how painful that must have been...

"Who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,

and as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness;

and when we see Him,

there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men,

a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him.

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Isaiah 53:1-3

Surely He has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

the chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

Isaiah 53:4-6

A few days later we passed by this same thistle plant, and look!!! Out of something so wicked and evil as these thorny thistles came a thing of great beauty...All of these beautiful butterflies were drawn to this prickly plant to find food and sustenance for their lives!  There were so many they had to fight each other for a place on the flowers to sip its nourishing nectar and live...

Who would have thought that out of something so full of "sorrow" as this thistle would come such life giving food?

Isaiah 53:10-12

"Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;

He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul and offering for sin,

He shall see His seed,

He shall prolong His days,

and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper  in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,

for He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,

and He shall divide the spoil with the strong,

Because He poured out His soul unto death,

and He was numbered with the transgressors,

and He bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors."

Thank You, Lord, for Your sacrifice for my sins. Out of Your suffering and great sorrow came new life and extreme joy.  Thank You for the beautiful gift of Your grace and salvation...and food for our souls so that we might live, and that more abundantly.   Amen.

It's Good Friday, But Easter is coming!!

Have a Blessed and Glorious Easter, my friends!

Friday Foto Friends, It's Good Friday...(Revisited)

Note to my readers: I have posted this same post twice today...one was the repeat of the old, and the other was a new copy w/o the old comments. Sorry if that is confusing to you...I wanted a 'fresh copy' to post on my church's facebook page. Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me for posting it twice in one day! Thank you for understanding. I should have done the new one first, but as usual, I'm slow to think these things out.  Have a blessed an prayerful "Good Friday" my friends.

This is another repeat of a previous year's Good Friday post.  As I re-read it just now, I was so touched by the message that God gave me here in 2018, that I wanted to share it with you again. Many of you may have already commented on it in previous years, but I hope you will appreciate the wonder of this day with me once again as we reflect on God's great sacrifice for our sins today.

Original Message 3/30/2018:

Dear Friday Foto Friends...Please bear with me as I share these pictures with you and tie them into Good Friday...a very sacred and Holy Day...The day our Lord was crucified for our sins...so that we might live forever with Him in heaven one day! What an amazing day this is...

Sunday morning as we went forward to take communion, I knelt before the altar to pray, and I was struck by the emblems displayed there on the communion table...the whole of Holy Week was right there before my eyes...The palms for Palm Sunday,  The Bread and the Cup for the Last Supper, and the cross with the crown of thorns that Jesus wore...

 and upon a closer look, I was shocked to see the nails that pierced His hands and feet, and the whip of cords that struck His back and body over and over again, and the money bag with the thirty pieces of silver that Judas received for betraying our Lord...

These items took my breath away...I wasn't expecting to see them there...and it brought me face to face with the agony that our Lord endured that week on my behalf...and as I ate the bread and drank the cup, I prayed that God would forgive my sins and make me worthy of His shed blood...I am only worthy because of His shed blood...His sacrifice that made me whole and declared me to be holy...what a humbling and beautiful experience...such joy in knowing Christ died for me...because He loved me! And He died for YOU, too, because He loves YOU.  I hope you know this to be true in your own life...

Earlier last week during one of our walks I noticed this thistle plant growing alongside the road...look at those thorns...can you imagine the pain of bumping into this plant?  Now imagine having a crown of thorns forced upon  your head...and nails hammered into your hands and feet...No, I can't imagine how painful that must have been...

"Who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,

and as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness;

and when we see Him,

there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men,

a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him.

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Isaiah 53:1-3

Surely He has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

the chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

Isaiah 53:4-6

A few days later we passed by this same thistle plant, and look!!! Out of something so wicked and evil as these thorny thistles came a thing of great beauty...All of these beautiful butterflies were drawn to this prickly plant to find food and sustenance for their lives!  There were so many they had to fight each other for a place on the flowers to sip its nourishing nectar and live...

Who would have thought that out of something so full of "sorrow" as this thistle would come such life giving food?

Isaiah 53:10-12

"Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;

He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul and offering for sin,

He shall see His seed,

He shall prolong His days,

and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper  in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,

for He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,

and He shall divide the spoil with the strong,

Because He poured out His soul unto death,

and He was numbered with the transgressors,

and He bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors."

Thank You, Lord, for Your sacrifice for my sins. Out of Your suffering and great sorrow came new life and extreme joy.  Thank You for the beautiful gift of Your grace and salvation...and food for our souls so that we might live, and that more abundantly.   Amen.

Have a Blessed and Glorious Easter, my friends!

Friday Foto Friends: Looks Can Be Deceiving!

 

Hooray! the Hummingbirds are back!  I put out my feeder a few days ago because I figured they'd be coming soon, and sure enough, yesterday we saw the first one at the feeder!  I have this hanging up on our back porch where I can see it all the time, so I hope we'll get to enjoy these sweet little birds all summer long!  But for now, that's the only picture I was able to get.

It rained all day yesterday, but the birds were still quite active.  I wish I could have gotten some pictures of the Bluebirds dive-bombing the squirrels on the bird feeder, but they are just too quick. It's fun to watch, however.  This female goldfinch managed to get a few seeds in spite of the squirrel and bluebird battles going on all around her.

Other than those two pictures, I realized this morning that I really didn't have anything new to share with you today.  Now, some of you are also Facebook friends, so you have already seen these pictures from last week's excursion to a little park here in town.  But for those of you who didn't see them, they are kind of fun.  So bear with me, friends, if this is another repeat for you.  

First we must read all the warning signs and then decide if we dare to enter this "dangerous" park! LOL.

Now, one sign says "No lifeguard on duty. Swim at your own risk!"  But the other sign also says "Lake Closed to Swimming from October 1- April 30th. May Be Unsafe to Use!"

But we must not swim within 50 feet of the dock...or maybe we just shouldn't swim or dive at all! I get the picture...and no worries...I wasn't about to dive or swim!

Especially after reading this sign:

"Warning - Wildlife - Danger"  Watch out for the alligators and snakes.  Thankfully, we didn't see any.

I looked in every direction just to be sure:

No sign of any dangerous wildlife...just a beautiful, peaceful little lake.

So after all of that confusion about whether or not to swim, etc., we decided that hopefully it was safe to go enjoy the rest of the park.

Right away hubby found these "monkey bars" and wanted to show off his prowess in going across them:

He wanted everyone to see how strong he was:

He didn't want me to show you that his feet were on the ground the whole time:

Such a ham!...but it didn't stop there:

He had to do a few chin ups too

Oh, such hard work! But he's so strong!!

As long as his feet were on the ground! LOL. We had fun.

I was "sleep-walking" apparently as my eyes were closed.  I thought I'd try out the sliding board.

Should I, or shouldn't I?

Do I dare to do it?

I did it! Well, maybe not.  The tube was really too small for me, so again, this is a "staged photo". I didn't want to get stuck in that tube and have to call 9-1-1 to come cut me out of there! LOL.

Next I tried to climb up on the Jungle Gym:

But I'm afraid that's as far as I got.  Again, I didn't want to get stuck up somewhere and not be able to get back down. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

So, then I very gingerly got on the merry-go-round. But I told my hubby that he was forbidden to come and push it or make it go any faster than I wanted to go.

I sort of tip-toed my way around it because I have serious issues with motion sickness and I didn't want to take any chances:

Okay, I made it all the way around, ever so slowly at my pace:

Hooray! I made it!  Oh, can you tell, this was actually on St. Patrick's Day last week. I had on my green shirt and a tiny little shamrock sticker so I wouldn't get pinched.

Oh, here's some pictures you haven't seen:

Last Sunday we went to "Hog Wild Country Cafe'" for lunch after church. Our kids went too and our DIL's sister and her son met us there for lunch.  I didn't take any pictures of people however.

Oh, and if you notice on the sign, it says, "Try the Cowboy Eggrolls".  I did. I had them with a side of Cowboy Beans and Fried Okra and Cornbread. That's my usual choice unless I'm in the mood for ribs. They are yummy.

But the only thing I took pictures of was this giant thistle plant that was blooming outside by the parking lot:

You surely wouldn't want to bump into those barbs that are on the stems!!

But aren't the flowers of the thistle plant so lovely?

I like this picture. I highlighted it a bit so you can see it better. I had to stand over it to block the sun as it was too bright to get a good picture.

Hence you see my shadow hovering over the flower.

Pretty Cool, huh?

It's interesting that there are a lot of different references to "thistles" in the Bible. If you have a good Concordance (or google Thistles in the Bible online) you can find out what God has to say about thistles.  But here is probably the most well-known reference that I thought was an appropriate warning for us today:

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, 

but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 

16 You will know them by their fruits. 

Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 

17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 

18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 

20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

Matthew 7:15-20

There are many "false prophets" in the world today, and it is often difficult for us to know for certain who's who, and whom we should believe.  Looks can be deceiving. We certainly can't trust the media to give us the full truth or the real story.  So it is incumbent upon us to be watchful and pray and let God guide us as we go about our lives.  That thistle flower above is lovely by itself, but if I should try to pick it for a bouquet I would soon find out that I've been deceived by its "beauty" and now I am in a lot of pain and very sorry I didn't pay closer attention.   And just like that lovely lake by the park where we enjoyed a beautiful day last week, it looks very lovely and inviting...but there are many warning signs of danger all around it.  I would be foolish to go run and jump into that lake after being so warned of the dangers that could be lurking just under the surface of the water.  So may we be vigilant and watchful in the days ahead.  May we not be fooled or enticed by pretty words or false promises.  May God give us wisdom and discernment so that we may avoid the painful barbs of the "thistles" of this world.  

Meanwhile let's go and enjoy the true beauty that we know God has provided for us today.  Have a blessed and wonderful day and weekend.  

Well, I guess that's all the photos for today. It's supposed to be a sunny day today, so hopefully we will get outside and maybe go somewhere else where I can take some pictures. You'll be the first to know.