One day a while back my daughter and I were at the mall. We sat down in the food court to take a break and regroup when we noticed a boy a few tables over who was visibly upset. We estimated his age to be twelve or early teens. He had his head down and looked as though he was fighting back tears. His parents were with him, and they seemed to be looking for something. Soon two older teenage girls walked up and when he saw that they had not found what they were looking for he became even more distressed and put his head down on the table.

As I began thinking about what to blog for Easter, I thought about looking at the symbols of Easter and their origins. Many of them have nothing to do with the true meaning of Easter and have pagan origins. However, we can give them a Christian meaning as we use them to teach our children about Easter.

Spring has sprung this week! We can just say the word “spring,” and excitement starts to rise in us, doesn’t it? We get tired of the same old doldrums, and we long for something new.

It’s that time of year again. Although it is not quite spring yet, we use the phrases fall back and spring forward to remind us which way to set our clocks for Daylight Savings Time. Most of us consider it a necessary nuisance and do it without much thought. Usually, we pacify ourselves by either thinking we gain an hour of sleep in the fall or complain about losing an hour in the spring. It is slightly amusing that we complain about losing an hour as though it is ripped away from us in a violent manner, yet we say little about the time that we piddle away every week.

This is the final blog on the hymn, “This is My Father’s World.” So far, we have looked at being able to rest in the thought that our father is in control, that he still speaks and that although it looks as if evil is winning our God still rules.

This week we continue our series of devotions from the beautiful old hymn, “My Father’s world.” The writer, Maltbie Davenport Babcock, loved nature as we have discussed previously but, in this verse, he looks not at the physical but the spiritual aspect of the world. He took note of the fact that when it seems like the wrong was winning that God is still the ruler.

This is the second in the series of blogs based on the old hymn, “My Fathers World.” It is a very timely verse of the song that we are going to talk about this week. When I started my blog, I wanted it to be encouraging and uplifting, so I tried to avoid discussing controversial subjects but let’s face it we are living in a time where it is getting controversial to be a Christian.

“My Father’s World” is an old hymn originally written as a poem by New York minister, Maltbie Davenport Babcock. It is reported that Babcock loved to take walks to view the scenery of upstate New York and Lake Ontario. As he would leave his home for his walks, he would tell his wife that he was “going out to see his father’s world.” That wonderful attitude led to the writing of this sixteen-verse poem of which a few verses were later set to music.

The word beset is one that we don’t use much anymore, but we are certainly familiar with its meaning. It means to skillfully surround to prevent running. It is found only once in the Bible in Hebrews 12:1, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

I have a very special guest blogger this week. My daughter, Jessa Potts is an art major at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. She is reminding us that whatever gifts God has given us we are to use them to glorify him.

We have just experienced our first snowfall of the winter in West Tennessee. As I stood from inside my warm house and looked outside the major thing that I noticed was the whiteness that blanketed every thing in sight. Freshly fallen snow is so pristine and clean.

It’s almost New Year’s but not quite yet. It’s that in-between time when we don’t really know what to do with ourselves. The excitement of Christmas is over and the New Year is not here yet. We like living for the next big thing, don’t we? We want to see something coming on the horizon but what about the in-between times. I know a week is no big deal, but life has all kinds of in-betweens.

Every Christmas season, I can’t help but think about Mary. When the angel visited her and told her that she had been chosen to give birth to God’s son, she must have experienced a roller coaster of emotions. She was honored to be chosen but horrified to tell Joseph and her parents.