Resurrection Peace and Resurrection Miracles

Will you be kind enough to indulge me this week as I write about our first-born son,  Doug? He and I spent most of his early years together indoors as the blizzards of Minneapolis howled outside. Our Daddy worked forty hour weeks and carried eighteen units to prepare for ministry.  Later in life Doug would come in my sewing room, piano room or kitchen and say: "What're ya' buildin',  Mama?" I knew early on that our son had inherited my love of creating lovely things.

Doug's championship wrestling took every bit of his skill and endurance for years, but it was no surprise that ultimately he would find his joy in turning ordinary materials into things of beauty!  I sat in my car in front of his airplane hangar one afternoon this past week. All of the other hangars are nondescript ...but not Doug's!  Inside are unique offices with large model airplanes hanging from cumulus-cloud-painted ceilings.  Private planes are stored on the floor below.  Like sentinels, all along the front of the hangar are tall trees that were left-over shrubs from a local nursery when he planted them a year or so before he so suddenly was taken Home. Over the entry door is a beautifully crafted wood covering that fairly shouts: "Come on in!" Like his dad Doug was a risk taker,  with unbelievable endurance. When I hear a plane fly over I still catch myself listening to see if it is his, flying low over our house on his way to his castle/home, two thousand feet above. Sometimes I glance to the mountainside on my way to town to see if he is paragliding. After four years I still halfway expect to get a call from him to come and see the latest custom home he has built for a couple who had a dream but could not find a contractor who would accompany them into their dream and transform it into reality.

I don't want this blog to make you feel sad. I needed to talk about my first-born son today. Thank you for listening. Now, will you come with me to the tomb of Lazarus?  Jesus knew that He would raise his dear friend to life again; yet his Great Heart broke for this man's loved ones...and He wept. There is no other passage of scripture that comforts me more than this eleventh chapter of John. Most early mornings I visit the Empty Tomb and there I am comforted by The Gardener of my Heart.  I know no other woman, though I am sure there are many, who have experienced the loss of a husband and first-born son in the same year. The shock has been nearly unbearable...but for the Empty Tomb.  I feel so deeply for every one of my children and grandchildren, but there are no human words that can comfort. Each suffers the loss of a different relationship. Separately, we await the  Resurrection Miracle when we will be united with Him and to each other...forever.

Without the Resurrection Peace that dwells in my soul I could not continue to open my home and my heart to those He sends who need reassurance that Jesus considers each of us His only child whom He dearly loves.

                                    EVERY DAY IS EASTER... BECAUSE HE LIVES!

...and then one day I'll cross the river; I'll fight life's final war with pain.
And then as death gives way to victory, I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know HE LIVES!

BECAUSE HE LIVES I CAN FACE TOMORROW
BECAUSE HE LIVES ALL FEAR IS GONE
BECAUSE I KNOW, I KNOW HE HOLDS THE FUTURE
AND LIFE IS WORTH THE LIVING, JUST BECAUSE HE LIVES!

Love,  Jo