The Tree with Special Blossoms

The following story is an excerpt from The Heritage of Etta Bend, a story my mother told me about her childhood in northeast Oklahoma. The “I” is my mother, Susie Latty Day. Mom told me this story and I wrote it to be included in The Heritage of Etta Bend in 1989. It was spring, […]

Stormy Weather

This morning is wet–very wet and the sound of rain is punctuated by thunder. Early this morning, a tornado touched down on the western edge of Springdale. So far as I know, it didn’t do a whole lot of damage, but definitely, some. Tomorrow is Easter–the most joyful holiday of the year for Christians. Shouldn’t […]

Why Is It Good?

Today is Good Friday; a German word for it is Karfreitag, sorrowful Friday. Some people believe it once was called God’s Friday. It was the day Jesus died for sinful humanity and is the beginning of the Easter weekend. I don’t like to think about the crucifixion. Oh, I love thinking about the Resurrection and the Lord’s […]

A Special Friday

How could the day that the Lord Jesus died have been called anything but horrible, heart-breaking, anguished? An explanation is that it was once called “God’s Friday” but through translation, was interpreted as Good Friday. Then, there is the German word, Karfreitag,  sorrowful or suffering Friday. Whatever it is called, it is a day for us […]

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday

Can you imagine the joy of the Lord’s followers on that first Easter morning? The stone had been rolled away. The tomb was empty. Death could not hold the Son of God. He is risen. He is risen indeed! Because of Easter, hope stirs within us and our spirits open to the magnificence of new life. Because […]

Good Friday

  Sin held sway and horror gripped the earth on the Friday Jesus died. Darkness covered everything and everyone. Not the darkness of a spring thunderstorm but a thick, suffocating darkness. Candles must have been lit in homes as people groped about as if they were blind. The earth shook and perhaps groaned as the […]