Easter Is Never Deserved

 

Dear Reader:

This is one example of the types of “Pause” sentences in the Mitford series that would make me literally stop reading, pause, and then re-read the line.  What did it say again? “Easter is never deserved?

After a few moments of concentration I always found myself thinking ‘How truehow very true.’ No one deserves a gift of one life for another…but yet that is exactly what God did for all of “anothers” He created…He sacrificed His Son so we could live…eternally.

There is no Thank You card big enough or words long enough to thank Someone for a gift of this magnitude nor can we even  comprehend such a gesture of love given unconditionally. Unconditionally… EXCEPT we must believe.

Believe, love and one more word explains Easter. Forgive. Forgiveness, grace, and acceptance must always accompany the toughest, darkest hours in each individual heart. If we can never forgive someone (including ourselves) from a betrayal of trust or love then we can never reconcile our own shortcomings to others.

In the end, after betrayal from friend and foe in the darkest hours of His life…Jesus forgave us one and all.

Father Tim’s famous line on forgiveness sums it up:

“Love is an act of endless forgiveness.”  

Look at the difference between three days in scripture….Believers go from the saddest to the gladdest day in Christian theology. “Sorrow and joy, Father Tim thought, so inextricably entwined that he could scarcely tell where one left off sometimes and the other began.”

Yet there would never be one without the other…as long as hope existed and birds sang with joy.

So until tomorrow…“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes…until you look back and everything is changed.” That is what Easter provided for human mankind. C.S. Lewis

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Easter is moving into the garden….

My first day lily….!

‘And here comes precious Eloise Cottontail...bouncing down the bunny trail…’

*Mandy sent me these two photos of Jake…my little cutie bug who found a ladybug (France…he names them all France???:) and it made his day. Don’t you love how a little ladybug can bring such simple happiness to a child…shouldn’t we appreciate the same simple happiness as an adult? (We can if we can forgive and turn things over to God without changing our mind and taking it back 🙂 Good luck! 🙂

 

 

 

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”
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4 Responses to Easter Is Never Deserved

  1. bcparkison says:

    We who believe are blessed beyond understanding.

  2. Harriett Edwards says:

    Glad you are getting day lily blooms. I saw one yesterday and thought of you. Hope you will have many more. Happy Easter dear friend.

    • Becky Dingle says:

      I think of you every year when the day lilies start to bloom…and love looking through my garden book…it has something on everything there could possibly be associated with a garden…wonderful reading. Happy Easter back to you Harriett…you and I are traveling a bumpy road but the view is breathtaking.

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