I wind my mantle clock, the one that has faithfully chimed every quarter hour for years.
It has ceremonially ticked away the minutes that have ushered in family birthdays, holidays, and just the daily routine of our lives.

I wind the clock, amazed that not one clock in my house says exactly the same thing.
They may be off by seconds, minutes in some cases, but none are exactly the same.
Our lives resemble a clock.

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It’s my early morning ritual.
Something I do from early May until late September.
Water my plants.

The back deck, side porch, and front walkway all have potted or hanging plants.
Each area gets different amount of sunlight throughout the day.
So to accommodate the deck, in the back of the house, on the sunny south side, early morning is the best time to water before the heat of the day.

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We had to take a car for inspection this morning.
I love the early morning.
There is so much to see…the light is so different this time of day.
There is so much to hear…it is so quiet you can hear sounds you would normally miss.

Since I didn’t get to walk this morning, my prayer time was in the car as I drove home.
But suddenly…there it was.
We all have seen it.

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I ran some errands today and saw some people I knew.
It is always nice to catch up, even briefly with someone.

Did you ever notice the niceties we say to people we don’t know?

I was at the cash register today, laying my few things down ready to purchase them.
Hello…I said as I got my things together.
Without looking up, the cashier said, Fine…how are you?

It made me stop.
I didn’t ask that…I didn’t ask anything.
I was just laying my things down in order to buy them.

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God is an amazing Creator.
Look at the people He has made.
What variety!

The miracle of a mother’s egg and the father’s sperm coming together to form a baby.
Not a glob of tissue, but a baby…who has a soul…who is made in the image of God.
That baby has a unique genetic code imprinted in every cell at conception.
No two sets of fingerprints are alike…anywhere…in the whole world.

That should astound us.
That should make us want to know the Creator who spoke and made…perfectly.

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In our fast paced world, technology changes so rapidly, things become obsolete before they have a chance to wear out.
The newest, the best, the latest, the most…superlatives that really tell us more about ourselves.
This “superlative mentality” tends to make us question if we really have that much to offer. Especially when we are operating very differently from the world.

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There can be too much chocolate…too much candy.
There are children’s books that talk about too much birthday.
But can we have too much Easter?

How do we carry our Easter Sunday into our Easter Monday?

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I was emptying the dishwasher this morning…and I was remembering.

As my children were growing up, I used to choose one word that described something special they did…something that set them apart from each other.
The word would change as their interests changed…but no two words…or two children…were ever the same.

A word for my youngest son was: drummer.

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The kitchen is filled with the delectable smells of baking. There is nothing better than fresh baked bread as it turns golden brown in the oven, or chocolate chip cookies that somehow disappear from the cookie sheet. Who can resist the warm cinnamon smell of fresh baked apple pie, or cider mulling in a large pot on the stove?

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When our fourth child was born (our second son) I would come downstairs with him for his early morning feeding. I sometimes put the weather channel on to check the temperature so that I would know how the other children should dress for school.

One morning, as I used the remote to find the weather channel, I stumbled upon a woman teaching a Bible study. I listened with my newborn son in my arms. I was hearing things I had never heard before.

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