Savoring My Passage - the monthly journal of A. C. Gray

April 2010

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We are grateful for the fact that Jesus the Christ was born in Bethlehem and lived and talked and walked among men, and, being put to death, came forth from death and walked once more among men....Life itself is a miracle, and surely that we shall live always is no greater miracle than we live at all; and surely that we shall come forth from the grave is no greater miracle than that we first came forth from birth.  And so we accept, as witnessed and recorded, the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus the Christ, through whom we are heirs to everlasting life – and the resurrection of all men, for the same Power who gave us life here has given us life hereafter.”        Richard L. Evans, Thoughts for One Hundred Days.

                          

 

Witness with me this joyful beginning of my seventy-third year.  “What delights sensitive souls in the spring,” wrote Dale Turner, “is the appearance of beauty, but it is more than that.  It is hope beyond any visible reality.  There is something in the softness of the air, in the lengthening of the days, in the very songs and fragrances of springtime, that caress and console us after the cold rains and dark days of winter and assure us that life is good and the best is yet to be.” 

 

Would I wax nostalgic this April, missing the tall trees that surrounded me at Piney Mountain and Arbreux, living as I now am in a town setting?  Not at all, for other thoughts absorb my time.  And in any direction as I go to work or market, the blessed hills surround and comfort me.   Shades of spring green now cover them where heavy winter snow lay just less than a month ago.  Migrating birds in flight remind me that life on our side of the planet has heard reveille. Already the crocus and narcissus I sunk into the good earth are about to explode into color.  Soon redbud and dogwood blossoms will display their glory over the woodlands of our Shenandoah Valley just as they have done so for centuries at Resurrection time.  That perennial event does not escape me; it rings with authenticity – Life goes on, the wordless message of Life Everlasting.

 

Always the month of April fills

All our world with colored thrills

Leaves on a tree on a low green hill

And crocus blooms where the sun lies still.

Always with eager hands she spills

Poems of Gold on the daffodils,

And back of the miracles we see

Is the caring of God for you and me.

                                    Isobel McFadden

                    

                       

The surrendered life is also an adventure because it is always on the alert, listening to God, to His voice and to His angels!... Every circumstance and every event takes on a new significance...Everything must be examined for God’s messages to us: What does He mean me to understand by this?  Where does He mean to lead me by that?... The idea of signs from God permeates the entire Bible.  The Creation is a sign of His greatness and His love. The...tremendous adventure of God is at work in every adventure of every man, and in every episode, even in the smallest.  The striking thing about the Bible is that it not only puts forward as signs from God the big events - the Creation, the Flood, the escape from Egypt, the Resurrection of Christ –but sees God at work in the tiniest details.  So we are attentive, in God’s school; everything speaks to us of God.” Paul Tournier, The Adventure of Living.

 

Black Beauty
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Somewhere I've read that every home should have something living there (besides ones' self!)  So now, with fingers crossed, this orchid has been given residence at Villa 109 Cliff Custer.  I welcome advice on how to keep it alive!  acg
 

    Hold on to April; never let her pass!

Another year before she comes again

To bring us wind as clean as polished glass

And apple blossoms in soft, silver rain.

Hold April when there’s music in the air,

When life is resurrected like a dream,

When wild birds sing up flights of windy stair

And bees love alder blossoms by the stream.

Hold April’s face close to yours and look afar,

Hold April in your arms in dear romance;

While holding her look to the sun and star

And with her in her faerie dreamland dance.

Do not let April go but hold her tight,

Month of eternal beauty and delight.  Jesse H. Stuart

Barred Owl

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;  And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.  For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.  Isaiah 43:2