Would Good Friday be the End for Carol?

The Day of our Lord's Resurrection is a day without compare in most Christian churches.  We are treated to the eternal truths of a Savior who is victorious over the powers of evil and death.  Our Savior.

That does not mean our lives are without challenges.  At Bethel today we heard the story of a woman named Carol Brott who started have significant health difficulties at the age of twenty, and in her 40's had nearly every heart ailment known to humans.

On Good Friday, April 2, 2010, she said to her husband, John, "I can't do this anymore."  She felt her life ebbing from her.  She had reason for resignation.  Surgeries, heart failures, weakness of body, a six week coma, 123 units of blood, this woman endured more than most bodies are capable of enduring.  While she was on a heart transplant list, things did not appear to be moving in her favor.

Certainly things were not in Jesus' favor, either.  Both political and religious authorities sought to silence him.  They succeeded on Good Friday.  Jesus uttered his forsakenness on the cross.  Jesus said, "It is finished," and breathed his last.

But we know that isn't the end of the story.  The story ends (or just begins?) with a stunning reversal on the first day of the week.  "He is not here, he has been raised, as he said."  And so Christians around the world have celebrated the empty cross and the emtpy tomb with flowers and light.  Bethel's sanctuary this morning was particularly attractive, appointed with Easter colors and flowers.  The chancel was also decorated with the prayers of the children, drawn during Lent and draped over a cross.

Carol Brott came so close to death on a Good Friday, nearly 13 months ago.  She did not die.  Instead, she was at Bethel this morning, testimony to great medical care and even greater faith.  The people of Bethel applauded as she stood.  For it was a year ago, on Easter weekend, that she got the transplant that saved her life.  She received new life--both in body and in spirit.  Good Friday is never the end.  It is only the beginning...

A Barbecue Nest

Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." (Luke 9:58)

Apparently a squirrel had no trouble finding a place.  It built a nest in my gas grill!  I had grilled on Monday, and tonight, Friday, went out to grill again.  I opened the hood of the grill and was startled to see a squirrel jump out, leap off the bench you see at the left of the picture, and hit the frozen turf at full speed.

Of course there was some considerable clean up before grilling was in order.  Kathy was none too thrilled that a rodent had taken up quarters on our cooking surface.  (By the way, the hamburgers were very good.) 

In our part of the country, cold as it is much of the winter, animals need to find secure homes.  Some fly away for the winter and come back in the spring.  Some hibernate.  But all need some shelter. 

We don't know much about Jesus' living conditions prior to his baptism by John, nor is much said about his lodging the three years of his ministry travels.  It is of little matter.  Jesus knew where home was.  Jesus promised "home" for those who know him as the way, the truth, and the life.

A nest in a grill?  A beautiful four bedroom home?  What about a dwelling place prepared by no less than the Son of Man?  No need to worry about gas flames...