April is perfect today. Blue skies and rapidly growing green grass and ducks playing in Campus Lake. Pastor Kerry spoke this morning regarding a book that he recommends in which the author points out that contrary to the common belief that humans are primarily intellectual creatures who become emotional from time to time…they are in fact emotional creatures who think from time to time. I enjoyed this statement since I have found this to be true all of my life.

Emotions are the fuel that runs the human-machine. Without our perception of beauty and love and service…we would be truly a drab lot. I can read that Christ rose from his tomb and ascended to heaven…but if I feel the words in my heart…my life is changed. I can be taught that Jesus loves the poor and the hungry and the marginalized…but again these are just words until a fellow traveler on this road of life…reaches out to me and feeds me when I am hungry…and says to me to come up to the table of prominence at the feast…where the King is sitting… and set beside them.

Change is difficult. Change is hard to understand or implement…intellectually. When the Dove of Heaven comes to sit upon our shoulder and whisper in our ear…then emotions transform our hearts…and we embrace change…

‘Jesus answered and said to him ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.’ Peter said to him ‘You shall never wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you shall have no part of Me.’ Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!’ John 13: 7-9. NKJV

As I sit on my Writing Porch and gaze at what appears to be my new ceiling after Judge Services cleaned it earlier this week…I am happy. Easter time has become a profoundly enjoyable time of the year for me as I grow older. I think, probably, since I have been a member of First Presbyterian Church. I want to purchase a new Bible each Eastertime…don’t ask me why…I love Bibles… I also enjoy Bunny Rabbit Figurines…especially at Easter. Easter Brunch is nice as well. Nature is resurrecting each Easter…it did not die in the fall…it went to sleep. Of course, there is another renewal of spirit in my neighbors and friends as they slowly venture out to renew their familial and friendship bonds as our Pandemic restrictions lessen. Again…as Spirit of Resurrection…

We tend to quit much too early in our heartfelt endeavors. We wonder if we are too old or if another is better equipped to address the problems that need human solutions that are around us. We hope to see a miracle…and forget that we are the miracle… I enjoy photography and recently have been toying with the filters on my camera. It amazes me that with a little touch of brightness and a dose of shadow…a photo comes to life…sometimes appearing similar to an oil painting. Would that we could see the brilliance of color and hue and mystery…that lay just beyond our cursory view.

Neutrinos are all around us. There is much more Dark Matter than Matter that we can see and measure…Quantum Physics tells us. Simply stated there are billions of times more that we do not see or understand regarding what the Matter comprises…than what we do see and measure and understand. Could some of this be our loved ones…just beyond the veil… Perhaps our Guardian Angel standing guard over us and saying for us not to worry about anything…

‘For now, we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: but now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. I Corinthians 13:12. KJV

Billy B. reflected on his life and thought of the many surreal events that had transpired in it. He recalled what the abrupt change that moving from Chicago to Eldorad had felt like and the different world that he suddenly found himself in. He remembered his Chicago friends; Steve and Susie and Danny and Pauly. Steve was a Master Puppeteer and put on elaborate performances of his many and varied Marionette Puppets. The puppets were so lifelike that Billy B. almost forgot that they were not real. In the darkness of Steve and Susies’ living room with the spotlight shining on Bozo The Clown and Punch and Judy…reality often became suspended. Susie had a crush on Billy B. and he liked it. She hugged him every time that she saw him…and he did not protest. Ivy smoked one Salem cigarette after another and never ceased talking while her husband, Bob, never said a word and smoked Pall Malls. Ivy, Steve and Susie’s mom, was Billy B.s’ moms’ best friend. Ivy often opened Billy Bs’ front door and called out, ‘June,’ and proceeded into their house for chit-chat and gossip. Then there was George and Ethyl on the other side of their house and they enjoyed barbecues with them in their backyard while his dad did the grilling and his mom and Ethyl played Badminton and George lay in the sun with his shirt off and tanned.

Eldorado was Grandma Askews’ town. She attended church at each event that the church doors were opened for… at the Gospel Assembly Church and she felt that each member of her family should do so, as well. She studied the book of Revelation and she believed that the prophesied events were imminent. She took it upon herself to teach Billy B. some of the key points of the Eschatology of the Last Days…and it made a lifelong impression on him… Billy B. and Chet and Jane and Daryl became friends in the New Town. Billy B. began school in 1962 and the Cuban Missel Crisis happened that October. With the Bomb drills in school…’Duck and Cover’…and the homemade bomb shelters…and the palpable fear that he saw in the eyes of the adults…he wondered if this might be what his Grandma was telling him about. The Bomb Drills and the ‘Duck and Cover’ method of safety were a long way from his Chicago Backyard Barbecues and Steves’ Marionette Shows.

Billy B. listened as the hissing sound of the bombs flew overhead…and he had taken a photo with his new Big Swinger Camera that he got early for his birthday in October 1962…of a cloud that looked like a Mushroom…and then all went…black…

‘Wake up Billy B.,’ Neva J. intoned. ‘I swear that I have never seen a boy that enjoyed a nap so much.’ she said. It is time for us to go to Town and Country Days…’You know how much that you and Chet have been looking forward to it.’ There was Chet at his bedroom door with a big grin on his face. Chet asked Billy B. if he was having a nightmare? Billy B. said, ‘It seemed so real.’ Chet replied, ‘That they always do…until you awaken…’

Putin says, ‘Release the bombs,’…and the poor called on God…and the rich sought to withdraw their riches…and some laughed and winked…and Billy B. woke up again to see that everything had been made new…and it was Spring…and peace had prevailed…