Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning I awoke to the sound of wind and rain…the rain didn’t bother me (we need it)…but the strong winds sure did. Ever since Hurricane Hugo I admit that strong winds make me edgy.

I dressed and went out in the garden to remove decorative flags, lower hanging baskets, and put all the recently cleaned lawn chairs back in the garage…*they were already turned over and rolling around by the strong wind gusts.

It was heavily overcast, hot and humid…I felt like I could cut the humidity with a machete. I turned on the weather and every channel was warning the low country of high, potentially damaging winds, and torrential thunder storms rolling in after lunch. So I decided to run all my errands in the morning so I could bunker down for the worst of this crazy weather system going through on this Easter weekend Good Friday.

My daughter Mandy, in Mt. Pleasant, said the sun was out there and the children had been outside playing all morning…what a difference a few miles make when a system comes through… I was already hearing that lots of power lines were down in Walterboro, St. George was without power, and the storm was heading towards Summerville.

The gusts from the winds felt like it could take a roof off…Luke came over and helped me secure everything and we made the decision to take “Big Red” in… it had given me a special “Good Friday” surcie by producing its first bloom of spring of 2019 with lots of clusters still around. But the gusts were actually bending the stems sideways….inside it went.

The weathermen now predicted that the storm would hit Summerville a little after two….it started getting darker and darker as you can see from light lantern that came on.

I started hearing thumps and bumps on the roof from branches falling and the lights started flickering on and off. I had just taken this picture of two limbs falling outside the computer room when the lights went off and stayed off for a short while.

As I looked out the back I saw my “Mr. Lincoln” stem with buds on it pop and fall over from the wind gusts…I think its muscle “stem” popped on its rotary cup too Brooke. It did make me sad…I was so excited about its first bloom…it is always so gorgeous.

Libby is in Pawleys Island for  Easter weekend with her family but she still has a house in St. George. I called to let her know about the power being off  there and we started talking. She first brought up the idea that this Good Friday was starting to eerily resemble the weather conditions on the original Good Friday (this had happened to her one other time she could remember)…

This time our winds and darkness started around noon and continued until around three when the winds suddenly slowed down to a breeze..and a gentle rain replaced the torrential one. It has also dropped  about 15 degrees and is actually cool (67 degrees) in comparison to the earlier morning hot humidity.

Luke 23: 44-46

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

“We often romanticize the Easter story, painting it with pastel colors and muting its meaning with graceful choir music. But let’s remember that Easter is much more than a peaceful sunrise. Christ’s resurrection came only after the earth itself groaned in violent agony.  

The first Easter was not quiet. It was marked by strange weather patterns, eerie noises and geological upheaval. When Jesus died, the earth experienced the most dramatic power outage in history. God shook the foundations of the planet. Then with His own hand He ended the old covenant system and invited us to boldly enter His presence by a new and living way.” (Source: “The Shock and Awe” CBN News)

So until tomorrow…”We can always comfort a child who is afraid of the dark…the real tragedy is the man who is afraid of the Light.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

I picked this phone pocket up to place on the back of my iPhone to remember to do exactly what the message says:

“Do More of what makes You Forget to Look at Your Phone!” 

Yesterday I was thankful for my phone to stay tuned to the weather and friends and family…but I know I need to use it less for other communications and instead get out and live the life Jesus sacrificed Himself for us to have.