Beyond Anything

A friend called yesterday and as we talked she told me that Easter Sunday had been rather boring for her. Now this friend on any major or minor holiday is in the throes of cooking and baking for a large extended family, so I can see how Easter Sunday was a tad ho hum. She was thinking I had worked outside on Easter but my Sunday in the yard was hoe hummed because I am at a stopping point waiting on a delivery of materials. It is feeling like improvise Tuesday, so Plan B might begin. After all the rain Sunday night, I see a flaw in the design of the redneck flowerbed and that needs to be corrected. Back to Easter Sunday. I didn't do too much that day neither by watching a myriad of online church services or catching FB Live things. I did play organ music, thank you Apple music subscription. The past few weeks I've been adding and then culling various Easter organ hymns and spiritual songs. I didn't want any plinky plank music, I wanted full throttled, high church, liturgical organ music...John Keys provided most of the music for the day. So the playlist is filled with Crown Him With Many Crowns, Christ the Lord Has Risen Today, Lo In The Grave, Worship the King...you're seeing how I went and then added those Episcopalian touches. I wrote checks and did correspondence for many years for Mrs. Baker and at both her husband's funeral and hers, I unknowingly sat by another Baptist. How do I know? We were singing a familiar hymn to most Protestant churches, but we got to a word in a verse, that Baptists sing differently. While the Episcopalians sang their version, we blooped by singing our known Baptist word. The Baptist man next to me said, you must be Baptist too. On Easter Sunday I didn't read the resurrection story in the Gospels even though they are some of my favorite passages. I didn't finish up my Lenten devotional. I didn't pose in front of my computer screen with a slogan in the background. I did sing. I did worship the King. I did pray. I did express my overflowing gratitude to Him for so much of life fillings at this time and for many things. I did watch the virtual choirs cobbled together via Zoom. I love what one pastor said a couple of weeks ago, even though it is an Easter emphasis at this time of year, anyone who has been looking for an excuse to get rid of their churches singing Christmas tree concert, should use this time to begin to phase that 1970s wonder out. You know what eliminates a singing Christmas tree? Have portions of it begin to fall in a concert....that's how our church kicked that tree to the dump.
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Back on a cold Thursday morning. When I awoke a little before 8:00, it was 30 degrees outside with a feels like temp of 24. Brrr.... Yesterday, although in the 60s and the sun shinning, it was a breezy cool. While working outside in shift mode, a lot of down time rescued me by retreating indoors. On Tuesday I made my once a week trip into Weaverville that included a stop at Lowe's. They had the nugget rubberized mulch on sale...sadly, they had sold out. So with my plan B in effect, I bought several bags of the shredded mulch to finish around the edges and also some potting soil because phase 2 is quickly coming into being. Phase 2 is happening soon because Plan B was put into effect on Tuesday. My last resort because of the delay in materials has been to dig out from underneath an old outdoor rug being used in the garage. Last resort because it was a labor intensive operation. But hey, where am I going? So the dig out began and it took time but finally the rug was extracted and then put into the flower garden, along with three well used welcome mats and one Merry Christmas welcome mat...for such a time as this. If the rubberized mulch pathways ever come, they'll be used to finish out the work. Yesterday, I put out most of the nugget mulch I had and sprayed some weed killer, good old vinegar, Dawn and Epson salts on some of the small weeds making their way through the cracks or not matched up well spots in the garden. I'll go out there in a bit and see if any progress was made cause the vinegar was expired but hey, you work with what you have. Y'all this project is beyond anything I had ever hoped for concerning it.

On Easter Monday I fixed one of the Taste of Texas steaks. Oh man, that was a good steak. I ate it on the back porch, and Bertha and Beatrice the neighbor cows started mooing something fierce. Oops, hope I didn't offend them. The tamales I ordered were delivered on Monday too. Glad I was outdoors cause the UPS guy had trouble finding our address...that's because there was a transposed address number, but the tamales and salsas are safe and sound in the freezer or refrigerator. The steak beyond anything...being outside to receive the tamales...beyond anything.

A wonderful surprise was in store on Tuesday afternoon, Kelly and the four kiddos stopped by with signs and greetings and we complied with the social distancing requirement of six feet. So fun talking with them and laughing as well. Pastor Bradley was making phone calls and checking in with members so he wasn't on the visit. Kelly, is a member of our Joy Class. We love her and she loves us, I mean, she hangs out with us oldies but goodies...we are at minimum 20 years and on older than her. She brings life to us and great ideas. Our class was sponsoring an Easter Egg Hunt but Covid-19 changed those plans. Now here is where we saw what God had prompted Kelly to share with her desire to do something for the kiddos at church. There had been one person who thought maybe we shouldn't egg hunt because of the pagan attachments from history...but we continued buying plastic eggs and candy, planning snacks and a God glorifying time. Kelly would be sharing the Gospel too, after the egg hunt. Then Covid-19....but then God.... Forward to several women at church with a heart for the van kids who come on Sundays because they are picked up at their homes and ride to church sans parents to church. They felt like the kids might be falling through the cracks and wanted to do something about that. They prepared snack packs and Bible lessons for them. Sandra called and asked if we would take some of the names of the kids and pray for them...yes! A resounding yes! At that time I mentioned to Sandra we had the plastic eggs and candy. Could they use them? Yes, they could. So I dropped off everything we had gathered. We also had some eggs in our Sunday School room and told Sandra they were free to take those as well. As the crew took the eggs with candy and Bible lessons to van kids as well as church kids. God used these eggs and candy to open the hearts of parents. Many of the kids wouldn't have been getting Easter baskets this year because of financial hardships caused from the virus and these parents minds and hearts were opened to the church and the gospel because of this simple yet profound gesture. Oh and the eggs in the closet? A family called, no ties to the church and asked if their kids could be included...the eggs in the closet were just the right amount needed for the four children added. God is so good! We thought egg hunt, God knew hearts that needed to hear about Him. This feels so like the boy with the fishes and bread...God multiplied our meager offerings. He is beyond anything....

These past few weeks of social distancing has contained some of the finest hours of God's goodness. The story above being one. Sometimes we have this mindset of what we should be doing or what we think is required and can feel a little guilty when we aren't practicing what so many others have shared. Easter is always meaningful if you're a Christian, but this particular Easter was more meaningful without the usual. On Monday I read a devo written by a woman who wouldn't be invited to speak at any women's ministry event at conservative churches. She is out there, uses words that maybe if we are honest only utter when tremendously frustrated and is a slip of the tongue, is so different but she loves the Lord, serves Him....but not in the box we construct. Her Easter devotional hit me like a ton of Robin Eggs Minis. God used her words beyond anything in the norm for me... I used to be afraid to read anything written that I couldn't agree 100% with. We agree on the things we should agree on...Jesus is God's Son, He was raised from the dead, born of a virgin, and He is Lord. God knew the words from His Word that she wrote about would encourage me.

God, above and beyond anything we could ever ask or think.