Easter Day

 This year's Easter morning started off a little differently when Ben called us from his car en route to the TYG Easter Breakfast. He wondered if Dad intended to burn down the entire hedgerow (being used as fence and fenceposts between pastures). No, no, he really didn't intend that at all. Saturday before, he and Josh had done some intentional burning of dead branches and other such junk over there. That night, Dad had checked the fire several times to make sure it was out. And so it was.

But.

Clearly, it wasn't, even though it appeared to be; because on Sunday morning it was clear that the fire had reached the biggest hedge tree and smoldered all night. Initially the wind was blowing the smoke east, away from the remaining hedge trees and the red shed; but it wasn't long before the wind shifted west and said trees and shed were in the line of smoke and fire travel. Dad, Josh, and I went to work trying to save the rest of the hedge trees.

This consisted of pulling close logs away and hosing down ones we couldn't move in order to create a firebreak. Our efforts paid off, as the fire didn't spread; we had no hope of saving that grand huge old hedge tree as the fire would peek out randomly along the branches where it had traveled inside the bark. It was actually rather strange.

After church, Jewel grabbed a picture as Dad & Josh kept burning, trying to clean up the field in anticipation of its future planting.

And that was our Easter morning. The morning started out kind of wonky for me, as we raced to make the firebreak and get to church on time. I didn't ponder the Power of the Resurrection much before church, although this scripture kept going through my mind as I was moving various smoldering logs and hosing them down: 

And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Jude 1:23

I kind of understand the "saving with fear" part a little better now - the stinging smoke, the intense heat (hedge burns really really hot), the hazards of unstable footing - and I wasn't even saving anybody, just an old shed and a bunch of trees. I can't say I was fearful of falling into the fire at any time, but I will admit I was very very cautious as I moved around it. And more than once I had to back away as the wind whipped the smoke around and the heat increased. Made me think about how careful we as Christians have to be as we witness to others, pulling them out of the fire, hating even their garments that smell like sin, and yet loving them enough to get close enough to the heat to pull them out. Not sure if that makes any sense, but at any rate, that was our Easter morning.

And that's about the end of my writing for now. It's been a really busy season although I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe because it always is, I guess.

So the rest of this post will be px, and as I once again play catchup, it'll be mostly px. Not my favorite way to blog, as I prefer to journal a little as I go, but that's how it is this time.

Easter morning service was a wonderful celebration of the Resurrection; the singing, the scripture, the remembering, the rejoicing. 

That evening then we did more celebrating with a houseful of kin.

My favorite part (of course).

the end