Good Friday

I have been working around the house this morning, preparing for Easter here on Sunday. Quite randomly, I popped a Nicole Nordeman cd into the player for the kids and I to listen to while we worked/played. Honestly, much of the songs were drowned out by the kids playing, the dishwasher running and the dog barking while the cd played, but ironically as I sat down near the tv to dust the entertainment center, this song called "Why" was playing. Having caught just the tail end of it, I hit repeat. As I sat there, with Ellie curled on my lap, I listened....captivated and deeply moved by the lyrics. What a crazy, God-breathed coincidence that on THIS day, Good Friday, the very day that we commemorate Christ's crucifixtion...at the same time in the morning that He hung on that cross, I just so happened to put a cd in that I haven't listened to in months...no....a year or more, and THIS particular song was one of the very few that I actually heard. Amazing. I feel compelled to share it with you today. When I searched online for the song, I found it along with this video clip from the movie The Passion. Please be aware that portions of the clip graffically depict Christ's crucifiction...just in case your little ones are nearby.

**Make sure to pause the sidebar music before you begin watching**

May we remember today all that Christ endured for us....

Broken Branch

We have a beautiful but scrawny little ornamental Japanese Maple tree in our backyard that is extra special to Ty and me. For whatever reason, when we bought this house, we longed for a tree just like this...with it's deep burgundy leaves that turn the most amazing hues of crimson as the crispness of fall descends. We planted our little tree last spring, even after being told that it might not survive the scorching heat of the summer. And it almost didn't. But as spring has unfolded in recent weeks, our little tree has finally leafed out with it's ruby leaves and I've been admiring it each day as I wash dishes or work there in the kitchen.

Today, as lunchtime approached and I was wrapping up some housework, I popped my head out the screen door to let Luke know it was almost time to come in from playing. As I did so, my heart nearly fell to my toes when I saw a huge chunk of bright crimson dangling from Luke's hand. He had broken off a large branch from this already scrawny tree and was playing with it!

I almost cried.

Before I even knew what I was doing, I was halfway across the yard crying out in some awful sounding high-pitched voice, "Noooooo..........honeyyyyyyyy.....what are you doing????!!!" Of-course, I knew what he was doing. He was playing. He was being a little boy. He was carefree. What I really wanted to know was why!

Stunned, Luke looked at me and froze in his place; the tree branch falling to his side just as quickly as his smile.

"I wanted to use it as a rocket ship."

Of-course, my adult mind quickly assessed that branch and saw no possibility of a rocket ship, but then again, I am not 4! Lol! Seeing the devastation on my face, Luke just stared silently at me as I bent down to gingerly removed the branch from his hand. Thinking back on it now, I am almost laughing at myself. I was so sad! I held that branch so gingerly you'd think it was my grandmothers good china. :) I spoke to him in the most serious, almost hushed voice I could muster.

"Honey...this is a very delicate tree. Its very special to Daddy and I. You can't just break off branches to use as toys. You have to ask Mama first before you do something like this. This hurts the tree. Its so tiny already and when you break off big branches like this one, it can't grow anymore "

I continued on then, though I don't know what I said, but I just felt compelled to fill the air with words and explanations, because I must've thought that would help me feel better. It didn't really. I was just so upset. Not at Luke...he didn't mean to hurt the tree and he didn't know better. This is know. I was upset that our little tree that had fought so hard through its first year, was now damaged and missing such a chunk of itself.

No sooner did I shut my mouth and feel a tear run down my cheek did Luke begin to cry too. :( How sad! But his was a deep, sorrowful wail. One that took him several minutes to recover from, even after I scooped him into my arms and hugged him...making sure he understood that Mommy was mad at him, just sad about the tree.

We came inside then and I grabbed a clear glass vase from the cabinet and began filling it with cool water. In my mind, I was determined to somehow preserve this little branch and, if nothing else, enjoy its beauty for just a little longer indoors. (Just a side note, it actually is quite beautiful sitting in its vase in the kitchen window!) Seriously people...I don't know why this little tree was so important to me, but it just was. And please know that Luke's tears weren't because I had screamed at him...I hadn't. He just knew that I was so sad and he crumbled into tears because he felt badly. Thinking back on it now, I just want to scoop him in my arms and hold him. My sweet boy!

Anyway, back to the story...

We moved on to lunch then, and the air was a little heavy as we ate for a few minutes in silence. At one point, Luke looked over at the vase in the window and I could see his little wheels spinning in his mind. I waited. Soon he said,

"Well, at-least now that its in watar, it can still grow."

"On no, honey. It won't grow. That is why mommy was so upset. Once the branch is taken from the tree, it is going to die. It might live a few days in that vase, but soon it will have to be thrown away."

And that's when he said what had been spinning around in his mind the moment before...

"Well....if it dies, then it will just come back to life again after three days, like Jesus."

My heart puddled at my feet. He was remembering all that we have been telling him about Jesus and Easter.

"Oooh honey....No. Trees and flowers don't come back to life like Jesus did on Easter morning. Once they are dead, they are dead. They won't live again. "

"Well...then, if they're dead, they'll go live in Heaven, right?"

Drip. Drip. Drip. There goes the last traces of my heart into the puddle.

I love him. My sweet child! So innocent! My heart softened at his naive sweetness! It was just about the cutest thing I had ever heard from him and the most endearing little way his mind was trying to put it death and Christ and the resurrection all together. We have been talking a lot about all those things lately. He is desperate for his Bible stories every night before bed. He is eager to learn and seems to be asking more and more questions as his mind matures. He listens and watches and takes it all in. I love that about him! And I just loved this little story....it will now get tucked away as one of my favorites, along with the memory of him running beside me that day awhile back with his cape! :) Our little moments....

My Belle

I am at the tail end of nap time, so this will be super quick! I spent much of nap time today working on a photo shoot I had last week with Krystal and Will's kids. As I mulled through the images from that day, I came across this one of my Belly-Boo that I thought was cute! She was enjoying a sucker along with Matt and Megan and, despite the dirt on her face from playing and the tousled hair, she was as happy as could be!

I love her.

Fire Department Visit

First off, thanks to those of you who have peeked at the new website and offered your comments and suggestions! Your feedback really meant a lot to me! Especially the ones about the typo's that I missed! :) When you read something a million times, your mind skips over those little mistakes! Thanks! For those of you who haven't seen it yet, the link is in the previous post and I am still eager to hear what you think! :)

Moving on.....

Luke and his classmates at school were treated to a fun visit from the Fire Department on Tuesday! We were excited when they arrived and we discovered that our NICU buddy Brayden's daddy was one of the firemen! I think Luke felt pretty special that one of the firemen knew him by name! :) That's a big deal to a four year old!!

As all the classes came out to the parking lot for the visit, they all sat on the curb together, and wanting to be in the middle of the action too, Ellie plopped herself down right next to her brother! She sat there for quite awhile too....surprisingly! Until she got bored that is, and decided it was much more fun to run around playing with my car keys. Sheended up pressing the panic button, making the alarm sound and disturbing the presentation! Hahaha! That's what I get for giving her my keys, eh?! :)




My sweet boy being such a good listener! His good behavior always makes me so proud! :)


Pretty soon, Shawn put on all his fire gear for the kids and talked about fire safety....



Once Shawn was completely dressed, he demonstrated what he would look like crawling through someones home to find anyone trapped during a fire. The kids weren't quite sure of him....



As he came to Luke, he must've thought that because he knew Luke and vise versa, that pretending to snatch him up and 'rescue' him would be okay....





Luke was a good sport...



Look at that face! A mixture of delight and a little fear!



Whoa!!!!!



After Shawn put him down, Luke ran up to me and clung to my leg, a little embarrassed I think, and a little unsure of what just happened. :) He was fine though, and once he he hid in my pant legs for a moment, he quickly returned to his spot there on the curb and was completely intrigued! :)

Shawn moved on to demonstrating how the fire hose worked next, and then each class got to pose in front of the fire truck for a quick class picture! I'll have to wait to post the class picture though until I get the okay from the other kids' parents.



As you can guess, playing "Fireman" has now become the game of the week around our house! :) What a fun morning we had! :)

"It is finished."

As Easter approaches this year, a passage of Scripture that our pastor taught on several years ago keeps coming to mind. More precisely, a specific word from that passage...tetelastai. In the sermon, Pastor John was teaching on the book of John (specifically on John 19:30). As I searched my own notes and my bible for an adequate way to briefly sum up the monumental meaning of that single word, my own thoughts and understanding fell far short of the depth I recalled, so I then did what we all would probably do and google'd it! :) I came across another sermon on the topic from a pastor I do not know. Here is a snippet (well..maybe it's more than a snippet! It was hard to choose just a little!) from what he said, along with the link to the full article (which is really good, by the way!)...

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A Dying Man’s Final Words
Only one person in history never left behind any unfinished business. His name is Jesus Christ.
He is the only person who could come to the end of his life and say—with absolute and total truthfulness—"I have finished everything I set out to do.”

It is Friday in Jerusalem and a huge crowd has gathered at the place called Skull Hill. It was on the north side of the city, just outside the Damascus Gate, and located by the side of a well-traveled road. The Romans liked to hold their crucifixions in public places. Killing people in public had a salutary effect on the masses.

This particular crucifixion started at 9 A.M. For three hours everything proceeded normally. Then at exactly 12 noon, the sky went black. Not overcast, but pitch black, so black that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It wasn’t anything normal like an eclipse. The darkness seemed to pulse and throb, almost like the darkness was a living thing,
an evil mutant creature escaped from some science fiction movie.

Only this was no movie. What happened was real. For three hours darkness fell across the city of Jerusalem. There were screams, hideous cries, moans, and other unidentifiable sounds. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the darkness lifted, disappeared, vanished, and sanity returned to the earth.

One glance at the middle cross made it clear that this man Jesus would not last much longer. He looked dead already. His body quivered uncontrollably, his chest heaving with every tortured breath. The soldiers knew from long experience that he wouldn’t make it to sundown.

Then it happened. He shouted something—"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Someone in the crowd shouted back to him. Moments passed, death drew near, then a hoarse whisper, “I thirst.” The soldiers put some sour vinegar on a sponge and lifted it to his lips with a stalk of hyssop. He moistened his lips and took a deep breath. If you listened you could hear the death rattle in his throat. He had less than a minute to live.

Then he spoke again. It was a quick shout. Just one word. If you weren’t paying attention, you missed it in all the confusion. Then he breathed out another sentence. Then he was dead.

What was that shout? In Greek it is only one word … Tetelestai … “It is finished.”

Was, Is And Always Will Be
Tetelestai comes from the verb teleo, which means “to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish.” It’s a crucial word because it signifies the successful end to a particular course of action. It’s the word you would use when you climb to the peak of Mt. Everest; it’s the word you would use when you turn in the final copy of your dissertation; it’s the word you would use when you make the final payment on your new car; it’s the word you use when you cross the finish line of your first 10K run. The word means more than just “I survived.” It means “I did exactly what I set out to do.”

But there’s more here than the verb itself. Tetelestai is in the perfect tense in Greek. That’s significant because the perfect tense speaks of an action which has been completed in the past with results continuing into the present. It’s different from the past tense which looks back to an event and says, “This happened.” The perfect tense adds the idea that “This happened and it is still in effect today.”

When Jesus cried out “It is finished,” he meant “It was finished in the past, it is still finished in the present and it will remain finished in the future.”

Note one other fact. He did not say, “I am finished,” for that would imply that he died defeated and exhausted. Rather, he cried out “It is finished,” meaning “I successfully completed the work I came to do.”

Tetelestai, then, is the Savior’s final cry of victory. When he died, he left no unfinished business
behind. When he said, “It is finished,” he was speaking the truth.

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To read the complete article, please follow this link.

So anyway....the word....tetelastai. It has played over and over in my mind this last week or so. Probably because I had my own "it is finished" moment, but I think also because God wanted me to dig a little deeper into the riches of Easter. And I have. :) I am so thankful to know that despite all the labor...despite all the work and all the turmoil of these tumultuous times we are living in, that when it comes right down to it, the real work is done, and I can rest in knowing that 'His wounds have paid my ransom' (as the song that is playing first on my playlist so eloquently says). Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection to life that Easter Sunday so long ago finished the work that God began in the beginning of time. :) Christ's death and resurrection is the payment for all the sins of man, and He has promised that if we just call on Him, ask Him into our hearts and declare Him Lord over our lives, He is faithful to complete our work too! Isn't that amazing?! I sit in sheer awe that such a big, powerful God loves me THAT much! :) He loves you that much too! Wow!

Now to the grand finale of my novel of a post? For those of you who have hung on to the bitter end here...(teeheehee) my own little meaning behind the word "tetelestai"....MY WEBSITE IS FINISHED!!!! :) Most of you know that I have been working on this for a few weeks (along with revamping much in the way of this little business of mine), and though the bulk of the work was done about 10 days ago, it wasn't 'official' until today (4/1). So...I thought it would be fun to share it with you guys and maybe hear your thoughts, feedback and suggestions. I am really interested to hear what you think! Its been a long time coming, and pretty nerve-wracking for me to do, but now its done! Hooray!!!!

Click here to see it!