a snow-bound Good Friday

The stuff of Holy Week and all the preparations for it has kept me away from the blog lately, I apologize.

Today the "first day of Spring" got a rather cold welcome, as one of the biggest snow storms of the entire season blew in last night. It will dump up over a foot in some areas by the time it's all said and done. It's as if the cold of Winter is trying to hold off the new life of Spring as long as it possibly can, smothering it under a frozen blanket.

Today is also Good Friday, the day Christians everywhere remember the death of Jesus of Nazareth on a cross. On that hill almost 2000 years ago, Death tried to deliver its knock-out blow to the Son of God. Followers who had so much hope for what might come in this man many believed to be their Messiah were struck with inconsolable grief when their Master, Teacher, Savior and Friend was brutally beaten and thoroughly killed. What glimmer of of hope flickered in their hearts faded away as the life of Jesus was snuffed out.

But, as a great preacher once said, "... Sunday's coming!"

Winter, the coldest season, the darkest season, the season in which everything green and living seems to die for good, cannot hold back the new life that lies dormant, waiting to spring forth, even through the snow.

The Life that came in Christ was the Light of the all... and the darkness cannot overcome it.