Good Saturday to you on this Easter weekend....We are at the end of Holy Week, and "Sunday is a coming"! Even the birds and animals are ready for Easter.........for new beginnings.......for Spring to burst forth. The whole earth is worshiping!
Looking back on this week, it has been a busy one. Last Saturday night we participated livestream in a 2 hour worship and praise service at Lutheran Church of Hope that "rocked these oldsters world" in a good way. It was amazing and we felt taken right back to Bethel Church and the time we spent there in Redding CA in 2017. It brought me to tears (actually, that is not so hard to do), this special time of worship and praise. So grateful for it. Sunday was Palm Sunday and the pastor gave a sermon on Peter's betrayal while walking around carrying a live chicken. Yes, you heard right, a live chicken. I don't know how she kept that chicken calm for three church services but she did.
Tuesday afternoon and evening we waited for the storms that were coming. A tornado formed SW of Mason City quite a few miles away...but we watched it come across the area....by the time it arrived we were in the basement and then when our phone alerts kept going off again and again and again and the forecasters kept showing us tornado warnings and funnel sightings and rotations over head we went into our basement bathroom where it is the "safest" place to be. It lasted so long.......took hours for this whole storm system to get here and move through. There was then a second round but we were by then sleeping in the basement family room. At 1 am Joel checked things out and said the storms passed and we could go to our "high tower" where the bedrooms are and go to sleep. Found out the next day that the second round of storms we slept through in the basement brought a tornado into Mason City and did extensive damage in the one SE part of the city and then went through an association just east of us. Extensive damage with house and or roof damage and many large trees pulled out by the roots. More than one falling on houses. Yeah....and we slept through that one after hours of watching and waiting and worrying with the first storm! Our phones did not go off for the second round that held the tornado! Gives you pause......
Thursday we watched church live stream over lunch time and then headed to our local church for a 6:30 service that was very powerful. Yesterday we watched Lutheran Church of Hope again livestream over lunch. It was so moving and sobering. Last night we headed back to our local church for worship. Tomorrow our youngest daughter Sarah and her son Jonas are coming for church and dinner.
Holy week has always been an important time for our family. When Joel was working at a church there were up to six services for him to officiate over and preach at. When he had three churches in three towns back in Montana Holy Week kept him running at full speed. When I was growing up our home town closed down on Good Friday from 12-3 so people could go to church. Church was from 12-3 and our large congregation would be packed with families listening to the sermons surrounding the seven last words of Jesus. Good Friday is still important in Lutheran and other mainline churches. I always say there is no Resurrection Sunday without Good Friday.
So, this Easter weekend I am grateful for Good Friday and what Jesus sacrificed for us, for the Father's great love for His children. Grateful for our area being spared during the tornado Tuesday, for living with an old meteorologist who still knows a bit about weather. Grateful for being able to gather for worship in person again this year, for family, friends, community. Grateful for phone calls, texts, and CodeRed phone alerts! Grateful for "Sunday's a Comin' " And so much more.........
Enjoy your weekend!
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