Pine Cross for Laetare

Today is "Laetare".......did you know that? That's the name for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. Unlike last Sunday's name, "Oculi", which immediately brought to mind eyes and seeing, this word "Laetare" conjured up absolutely nothing in my mind. So resorting to the dictionary, I found this definition: "......the fourth and middle Sunday of Lent, named after the beginning of the introit for the day (taken from Isaiah 66:10), the word "Rejoice". The Latin word "Laetare" means "be joyful".

Late one afternoon, a couple weeks ago, as I was walking back up the lane from the mailbox, the sun was illuminating this pine tree trunk in such a way that it resembled a cross.......at least to me it did. Actually, this tree is rather mishapen, with a crooked lower trunk and this bare area where branches have died and broken off. But, those features caught the glow of the sun and provided an interesting photo subject.......so you just never know.......with the right perspective, flaws can be special!!

This morning the sun shone and coaxed a bit of snow to melt, but clouds have moved in this afternoon. A fairly large crowd was in church this morning.....due to Communion and the school kids singing a song in the service. We were late, so we slipped into a back pew next to a couple and their three-year-old daughter. The mom took her little girl along up to the Communion rail, where she stood between her mom and me as we kneeled. She watched the white-robed pastor with wide eyed interest. It was a precious moment, leaving me wishing we had allowed our kids to accompany us to the Communion rail when they were little. None of the parents did that back then.......the mother and father would take turns going up or staying in the pew with the kids. Anyway, this morning, it was a privilege to have this sweet little person standing next to me at the rail!

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Its been a peaceful afternoon.......following clean-up of noon dinner dishes, exhaustion swept in, so I vegged in the recliner for a couple hours, reading the paper and snoozing. Husband had cozied up with a calculator and was crunching numbers at the kitchen table. Son was wrapped up in quilts on the floor watching a college basketball game. Yes, all was quite peaceful, even the background noise of the TV game seemed comforting.

A blessed, peaceful, and joyful "Laetare" to whomever may read this!!