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Peonies, Surgeries, Seasons and Mother’s Day

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I’ve heard it pronounced several different ways. Depending on where you are from, you might say, “Pee-OH-nee” or I have even heard “Pie-nee” but I have always called them “PEE-uh-nees”. It doesn’t matter how you pronounce it, I will know what you are speaking of if it is early May in the South or a bit later up North!

I will immediately be transported back in time to a bank on the side of the road at my Mamaw Cammie’s house. She had rows and rows of the gorgeous bushes that just beckoned you to sit and fight the ants for a chance to drink in the aroma. My grandmother had pink peonies, white peonies and the gorgeous dark pink, almost a raspberry peony.

Simply a rare treat that only came once a year and much to my dismay, only lasted a short while. In Indiana, where I am from, they were wise enough to make the peony the State Flower. Go Indiana! I discovered that it was also our national flower until 1929 when it was replaced by the plum tree. Someone obviously didn’t have a Mamaw Cammie or a row of peonies from their childhood to remember!

Peonies and Mother’s Day go together like peanut butter and jelly. I have always enjoyed the entire season. Florists around the globe are saying that the peony is still the number one flower in a Mother’s Day bouquet. And, with the admission from another future princess-bride-to-be, that the peony is also her favorite, Meghan Markle, who will soon marry Prince Harry, will push the love of peonies over the top in 2018!

This may well be the first season I will miss smelling a peony, holding a peony or chasing ants that have invaded my kitchen table because of a peony. I have been house-bound since having major back surgery April 4. I had a lumbar spinal fusion of my L4/L5 and L5/S1 with lovely instrumentation (my ortho surgeon says not to call it hardware as it sounds as if I went to True Value for a quick fix!) 

If that wasn’t enough, the day I was to be discharged from the hospital I decided to break out with shingles! That is another blog post for another day. Drama, drama and more drama!

I have been overwhelmed with help from family and friends. In fact, this week is the first time I have really even been alone for the last 35 days! My wonderful church family brought meals the first week, my mother has been here twice from Indiana. My sister stayed ten days and my sister-in-law also drove from Indiana and cooked up a storm! My daughter-in-law Alicia and grandbaby Lark came and stayed several days to help even though she was fighting morning sickness herself (Baby Elkins is due 11/16/18!) My good friend and Norah Jayne’s other favorite Nan-Nan, Tonya, also came and spent a weekend taking care of me while The Sweetheart was out of town. Rachel, Kyle and Norah Jayne have been here constantly. If she wasn’t cooking a fabulous meal she was cleaning and I am forever indebted to them all.

And of course, that same Sweetheart has babied me and cared for me the last five weeks even when I might have, possibly, been a little difficult. Ahem.

Needless to say I have not been around a peony bush or bouquet this year and I can hardly believe this season will pass and I will not experience my favorite thing about spring. But sometimes we don’t get everything we want, things do not go our way or life just hands us difficulties we hadn’t planned on.

Missing out on peonies? Bummer.

Missing out on what God was trying to show me the last five weeks? Tragic.

This is a season, just like the peony. It came and it will also go. The pain will eventually subside and I am trusting I will be walking and moving like I haven’t been able to do in years. And in this season of pain, as the song says, Through it All, I’ve learned to trust in my God. I’ve cried His name in the middle of the night and He has been there for me. When no one and no medication could help, He was my comfort and my strength! Sometimes the pain would remain but His presence brought peace and sleep. He has been faithful.

Mother’s Day is also a difficult season for many. Some of us look forward to the celebration and remembering of our mothers who may have gone on to be with our Lord. But there are precious friends and family around us who dread the day because their hearts are broken and empty. Whether it is the unbearable loss of a child, the emptiness from not being able to conceive, the death of their own mother or possibly their childhood was not a happy one and their relationship with their mother was not one they even want to remember, not everyone is looking forward to this Sunday. (Read my post What if it isn’t a Happy Mother’s Day)

God knows when our hearts are hurting and He is One that can heal the hurt, fill the void and send comfort and peace, which sometimes comes on the feet of another. Be that one! If you know someone who dreads Mother’s Day, don’t ignore their hurt and pain. You don’t have to say anything if you aren’t good with words but a squeeze of the hand or a hug if appropriate, goes a long way in letting that precious soul know you care.

We face seasons all throughout our walk with God. Some we delight in, like the blooming of the peony, others we do our best to stay away from such as surgeries, shingles or the approaching Mother’s Day celebration. But whether it is sunshine or hard times, our God will always be there. We whisper His name and He is present and that surety of His presence is better medicine than any flower He has ever created.

Until next year, dear peony, until the next season, until the next trial, Amen.

So, there was that time I was STUCK

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So, there was that time I was STUCK….It’s #FiveMinuteFriday and today’s word prompt is, you guessed it….STUCK!

Years and years ago, my mother, grandmother, youngest brother and first of My Three Sons and I took a trip to Florida. The Sweetheart was working and my inlaws owned a place in the Ocala area. Free vacay!

Everything was great, the weather, the place, the company, until we decided to go to the beach.

Now, in my defense, I have been to the ocean many, many times. As a young girl growing up, my family vacationed in St. Petersburg for many years and even if we weren’t in that city, the ocean was our destination of choice.

But…as an adult…the designated driver and sort of Leader-of-the-Pack, I had never driven to the beach.

Again, in my defense, everyone else was doing it. Parking their car in the sand on the beach. This was the early 80’s, maybe things were different then, maybe it was a secluded area, I can’t remember particulars. All I remember is that I was following The Crowd. Until I didn’t notice that The Crowd had all moved their vehicles OUT of the sand and onto the parking lot.

There was no notice. No text message. No Guy-in-Charge-of-the-Ocean that came around and said it was TIME.

Time for what you ask?

Tide. Not the kind you wash with or eat either. The kind that comes in every evening and causes the ocean to envelop everything in its path. If that happens to be a vehicle? Too bad.

I was kindly alerted to this impending disaster when a group of young people come running to me saying I needed to move that car and NOW. I jumped in the driver’s seat but it was already STUCK. It wasn’t that waves were lapping at the car but the sand was already wet and those tires were digging in fast.

Intent on saving the day and impressing all the teenage girls, this group of guys began to push and push until they had successfully gotten my new Buick out of the sand. Yes, I said NEW BUICK because it hadn’t been too long since I had totaled The Sweetheart’s beloved little truck, hit head on by a little old lady in a tank. (You can read that hilarious story here!) So, we had a nice new car that was about to be carried out to sea.

Have you ever been STUCK? So much so that it seemed as if all of life and the world around you was about to suck you in and drag you into oblivion? That might seem a little extreme and even a stretch for a spiritual analogy but it happens. Every single day.

We become STUCK in routines, STUCK in relationships, STUCK in financial hardships, STUCK in so-called friendships that are sucking the life right out of us.

Sometimes, we just need a push.

Jesus came to save, to deliver, to give us that PUSH that will help us become un-STUCK and encourage us to make the right decisions. To leave unhealthy relationships, to manage our finances better by putting Him first and to even help us to realize that our routines are time-wasters and show us a better way to manage that time!

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 ESV

If STUCK describes you today, turn it over to jesus and let Him give you life abundant!

For the kingdom

 

Seal the stone, set a watch but Jesus is coming!

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It’s Saturday…You can read the other posts from the Holy Week series Hosanna, Hanging on His Every Word, Because He Lives, No need for the Sword, Did Jesus really sweat blood in the Garden? and The Friday that was Good.  Be sure and come back tomorrow, and we will wrap it all up. Blessed Easter!

There is not much information given in the Word of God concerning the day after the crucifixion.

But then there is Pilate.

He makes another entrance here, and even though we might not gain much insight as to what the disciples and family of Jesus are doing, we get a good look at those that crucified the Lord:

“Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,  Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.

Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.”

Were they really afraid of this teacher? They said they were afraid of His disciples, that they might actually steal the body of Jesus and then present it to the people as if He had risen from the dead. Just like He said He would do.

Pilate was already in. He was in deep. He didn’t originally want to kill this man, Jesus. His wife even warned him of her dream and begged him to spare His life. But Pilate was swayed by the people. He caved, gave them a murderer instead and allowed the crucifixion to proceed.

But now, he cannot afford for anything to go wrong!

 “Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.”

“So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” Matthew 27:62-66.

 

Seal the stone, set a watch, make it as sure as you can.

There was no rock heavy enough, no amount of guards strong enough, to keep Jesus in that tomb!

Pilate’s attempts were pointless when it came to keeping Jesus from rising again. Even if he didn’t believe it, if he was convinced that the disciples were the ones to try to move the body, it was all out of his hands at this point. God was in control and His Word had already declared that on the third day He would come up out of that grave!

And today, it is the same.

We cannot prevent the Word of God from being fulfilled. Prophecy has come true for hundreds and hundreds of years, and the last few prophecies will come to pass. Jesus will come again for His people, those that have made themselves ready for His appearing.

Are you trying to control things today? It is useless, friend. God was in control at Calvary, at the tomb and at the ascension. He is still in control of the events of this world today. He isn’t surprised by the pandemic, wars or rumor of wars. We can trust Him with our anxiety. Our hope is in Him and Him alone!

What will you be looking for in the morning?

He will not be on the cross or in the tomb.

“Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.”   2 Corinthians 4:14.

He came out of the earthly grave so that we, too, could triumph over death, hell and the grave! While we await His second coming, He wants us, YOU, to have a relationship with Him here. He wants YOU to come up out of the grave of depression, isolation, loneliness, emptiness and be set free because of Calvary. 

No matter what the soldiers did to keep Jesus from exiting that tomb, He was coming out anyway. Friend, there is no obstacle that God cannot move out of the way for you as well and this Easter weekend is a wonderful time for a total life change. One that matters for eternity.
Be sure and come back in the morning…He is alive! 

 

For the kingdom