[Billie]

[Billie]

Good morning, FRiends,
A few weeks ago I asked not one, but two of our Finest wordsmiths to get together and write something for us - a topic of their choosing. Expecting an essay something like "America The Beautiful", what they sent me was anything but. A must-read for all of you, you will be entertained from the beginning to the end. Not only did they put their heads together to put together this most delightful tale, jwfiv even found the photos to illustrate!

I can't say how much I enjoyed putting their words and pictures together. So, let's get started!

[FreeTheHostages]

ROFL!!!! This is great!! And more to come?

Wow, I must say, the Wolfie history explains a LOT!!

This is really really funny!

[sauropod]

Loved Carlo1A and Jean Huang Deux. Very funny.

Waiting on my improbable origins ;-). You will have to go a bit farther back in "histoire" for that!

KLT's origins can be traced to the original BLT. HHC's origins can be traced to Moses's basket (boat) in the Nile (round about the reign of Ramses II.).

[.45MAN]

Great Post!!!! And I love the Deep Blue and Yellow colors.....Ha....

[Temple Owl]

What a great post! Thanks for the uplift.. Not that I really need one. One of our guys pitched a no-hitter yesterday. And Al Franken (the great liberal hope) made an ass out of himself. Things are going our way.

[FreeTheHostages]

OK, how much trouble are you guys going to be in for tracing the King of Ping to France? :) Like, are you going to need a body guard?

[grantswank]

WHY THE LOW-KEY JESUS AFTER THE RESURRECTION?

Why is everything so ordinary after Jesus’ resurrection? That is, of course, except for the resurrection itself. That is the most significant happening in all planetary history.

However, it must be admitted that the daily occurrences for the next forty days until Jesus ascended spell a rather usual routine.

If humans were writing this time period they would have had an Easter theme park already set up with circus and food stands. Naturally. That’s the way humans conclude that stupendous occurrences have to be fêted, hence our overspending on weddings and graduations and so forth.

But not with the divine. When God brought Jesus back from the grave, God set up shop pretty much per usual. We Christians take that for granted for we have read the Easter passages for so long and so many times that we are not impacted by the unusual of the usual. It is a shame that our reading often takes on such a ho-hum mode.

Therefore, I suggest that you read the resurrection sections as if for the first time, including the tellings related to the days prior to Jesus’ ascension.

Note that Jesus is walking about the countryside, talking with friends, inviting Thomas to touch His wounds, and even having breakfast with the fellows after their night of fishing.

None of that is outlandish. It is a pastoral scene overflow rich with nature and fellowship with friends, but it is not an extravaganza. It is pure and simple. It is lovely and comforting. But it is not showmanship of a Hollywood style, for certain.

If Jesus had trumped up a center-stage display for programming and applause, He would not have started a church. He would have started a cult.

If He had set off fireworks announcing the miracle of the resurrection, His disciples would have naturally concluded that such fare was going to be daily doings. It would have started an insane sequence of unreal expectations that never could have been corralled.

Consequently, Jesus kept to the normal, the usual, the rather routine, even when considering that He was a real live person walking about after having been murdered. In this, Jesus prepared His followers for dealing daily with this spiritually fallen sphere.

If Jesus had created a circus follow-up to His rising from the dead, His disciples would have concluded that that was their spiritual inheritance henceforth. Such would have led to a crazy club.

Instead, Jesus, in His caring for His own, kept His forty days’ appearances to the low-key. In that, He guided His disciples into a rightful thanksgiving to heaven for the resurrected Presence while at the same time instructed them that they were still citizens of a crippled world.

In other words, Jesus’ low-key style kept His followers to the real, the actual, rather than spinning them out into some neurotic religious mindset. Jesus knew that only when His own reached the perfection of heaven would they then be free from pain, confusion and disappointment. Therefore, He had to keep them on balance for all of that here, even with the fact of the resurrection staring them happily in the face.

A cult or a church? That was the choice. If Jesus had gone off on some spectacular, worked up camp, he would have formed an off-beat cult. But because He kept the balance of a risen Presence plus the spiritually fallen world environs for His own, He began the Church Age.

Thank you, Jesus.

[WaterDragon]

I loved every word of it, and can't wait for the next installment!

[The Thin Man]

LOL! Wonderful family histories! They do explain quite a bit about some of our current FReepers.

[knighthawk]

Albert Gore?

[Central_Floridian]

I loved it!! Thank you for that awesome story.

[uglybiker]

It's interesting that you would be posting the family histories of some of our more prominent posters as I am currently doing reasearch on one of my ancestors.

I don't know much yet as I am still trying to decipher the rock paintings.

[grantswank]

I Do Not Mind the Wind

I do not mind the wind
That blows against my face
As friend to friend we talk
A language new and fresh

For winter storms are past
With snows’ fierce blowings o’er
And with them cutting breaks
That tore against my flesh.

I think that spring’s sunned wind
Has waited long for me
As I have longed for wind
In secrets of my heart.

It’s time we romped and pranced
Till daylight hours cease.
It’s time we laughed, forgot
All dreads, new dreams caress.

[grantswank]

As Buds Upon The Branches Nudge


As buds upon the branches nudge
Their heads to right and left -- so round --
I think of springtimes past I've breathed
In nature's purest nunneries.

It's like a scrapbook come upon
That's laced with roses, tulips red,
Some lily plants from Easter’s store
That banked our souls with scent-uries.

I've mind to think that Jesus comes
Upon our season merciful
To smile His graces on these hours
So lit with sunshine's pleasantries.

A resurrection has begun
As surely as God's promise
Reminding us that by His love
He posts His caring certainties.