Lent 2012 continues

It's Wednesday again but the 7th of March now.  I came along with Will to Frankfort, KY.  While he is at work in his office my new friend and the financial secretary of the Church, Jo Ellen, taught me a few words and phrases in French in her office.  Jo Ellen was a French teacher in high school here.  My first lesson was fun today as she is a great teacher.  I have always found French beautiful and melodic.   After visiting Taize and Paris a few years ago, I tried learning French by using books and video but did not succeed. Jo Ellen had her first Fench lesson at age 4 from a French lady and went on to get a degree in it and taught it untill a few years ago.  She sounds like a real French lady right here in Frankfort, KY.  She has become a good friend to me.  She is kind, quiet, reserved and very funny all at the same time.  God has been good giving me new friends everywhere I live.  My lesson was for only about 20 minutes and that's all I need for today.  I will practice what I learn.

At about noon I went off to meet with 3 members of church for lunch.  Ann is the one who invited me and there were 2 others. We sat in a dinning room looking out to the trees that are full of little buds ready to show off with leaves.  Against the blue sky the still blackish mostly naked looking branches of trees are stunning.  I sat thinking how marvelous is our God that He makes leaves gorgeous in the fall that all fall away from the trees in the winter and the trees stand naked in the cold.  When it snowed they look gorgeous like they are blooming.  The last time I saw that was 3 days ago.  See the pictures below:

By this morning all the snow has melted and the trees are back to being bare and still beautiful.  See pictures below:

God is good all the time we say. Indeed He is.  In this lenten season I realise that the cycle of life is facinating.  The God who made us and who made the Summer, the fall and the winter also made the spring.  Spring is coming, it's a promise.  Life will be evident again.  LIfe is always there even when the trees are bare and their branches and trunks are dark and looking lifeless they are alive, very alive.  Soon spring will arrive and we will see the trees being clothed with uncountable leaves again. There will be blooms of all kinds of flowers and fruits and all.  

In Lent I feel as though I am in waiting - praying with Jesus long ago, meditating, thinking, being empited out, quiet inside and praying again and again and again.  Soon, Lent will be over.  Then Holy Week awaits and then Palm Sunday and Easter -  resurrection and celebration of life eternal!  So much is gong through my mind today.  This may not make much sense to any one else but to me.  

I ate my lunch listening to the new 3 friends chatting about all sorts of things, getting to know who they are, what they like, who matter to each of them. I looked out the window and saw the naked trees standing tall.  I know there is life in them as much as they don't seem to be alive.  I get so excited.  The fact that I was taught by a new friend and sitting wtih 3 more new friends was a sign of God's promise of new things coming to my life again.  Yes.  Yes. Yes. Thank you Lord for speaking to my heart today.  KY Hot Brown was delicious, so was the tea and the green salad I ate.   Life is good. I give thanks to God.  And then I looked at the Psalm for today.  I am surprised that it is this Psalm. Please read on:

Psalm 105

God’s Faithfulness to Israel

¹ O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name,
   make known his deeds among the peoples.
² Sing to him, sing praises to him;
   tell of all his wonderful works.
³ Glory in his holy name;
   let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
⁴ Seek the Lord and his strength;
   seek his presence continually.
⁵ Remember the wonderful works he has done,
   his miracles, and the judgements he has uttered,
⁶ O offspring of his servant Abraham,
   children of Jacob, his chosen ones. 

⁷ He is the Lord our God;
   his judgements are in all the earth.
⁸ He is mindful of his covenant for ever,
   of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
⁹ the covenant that he made with Abraham,
   his sworn promise to Isaac,
¹⁰ which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
   to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
¹¹ saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan
   as your portion for an inheritance.’