A friend sent me this link, to my great joy - not only because I love photography, but more importantly, because I love my Saviour, Jesus Christ. I just had to share it.
For those of you who feel similar to what I feel for Jesus, your love will deepen when watching these images, I promise. For those of you who have not yet felt the light of Christ in your life, but would like to understand this wonderful power, and what impact it has on the soul, maybe this will trigger a desire to plant that seed of faith in your heart. Any which way… it won’t hurt to watch.
I know that Easter is over, but I just have on last thought about these past days.
Whenever Christmas or Easter comes around there is always so much going on… but so little pointing to Jesus Christ, who is (believe it or not) the main reason for these celebrations. I always say that there is so little Christ in Christmas. I’m starting to feel the same way about Easter.
For example, when I searched through the TV guide for programs of Jesus, religion or spirituality, I think I found one program out of hundreds that was remotely close. It was about doubting Thomas, and I watched half of it. Unfortunately, I didn’t particularly enjoy it, because it gave an unorthodox view of Jesus. That only added to my frustration. Not even in a film depicting the resurrection of Jesus it was hard to find the real Christ. Sure, we had found him in Church, and also in our home (see Our Saviour’s love) and that is of course the most important thing. But why, I asked myself, why is He so hard to find “out there” - even at a time like this.
I often go out in nature to feel close to God. The other day I did so again, thinking that if I can’t find the true Light of Jesus in the “world”, maybe I can find it midst God’s creations. So I grabbed my camera and headed out one late afternoon. To make a long experience short, I was out for quite some time, but found nothing - and felt nothing. Then, on my way home, I drove past a place I’ve been to many times. It’s a dark place with lots of trees and shrubbery. I never saw the light reach this spot. Until today. I don’t know if the photo below shows it, but it was amazing. A ray of light from a very low sun struck this place.
I learned two lessons that day. First, if we search for the light we will sooner or later find it. Second, when the light strikes, it shatters the darkness, just like it this photo; believe me, normally this is a very gloomy place, but it actually looks beautiful here. And that’s the point I felt: Whatever Christ shines upon becomes beautiful.
This is what makes it such a beautiful life. A good life.
“We love him, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
It’s been a good Easter. The family has been together a lot. My mother-in-law, Silvana, has also been here. She is really sweet. She took all of the kids one night so Angelica and I could have a date for the first time in who knows how long. Having small children is wonderful, but being alone with your wife now and then is worth gold. But the weird thing… not long after you leave your children, you start missing them, even though you finally got the chance to get away for awhile.
I think what made it such a nice Easter celebration was that it got off to a wonderful start. On Friday morning I had planned to sleep in, but our bed got invaded very early by creature who looked just like our kids. Oh great, I sighed, there goes my much needed rest. But after doing my ritual stretching and eye-opening exercises I started to feel good, a feeling that also came from the peaceful serenity of the moment; there we were, all five of us, lying next to each other, and it was calm. Yes, calm. No kids jumping on my stomach. No teasing. No whining. Then Clara leans over to her mother, puts her hands on Angelica’s cheeks, and says: “Love…”
While Angelica is in tears from hearing Clara attempting to say “I love you” for the very first time (at least so we could understand her), Johannes is the next to surprise us. He said: “You know, I would die for Clara!” Hearing him, but not altogether ready for such profound words so early in the morning, I said: “What!” He answered: “If something bad was about to happen to Clara, and she might die, then I would want to die in her stead. Because I have lived so long, but she has her whole life in front of her.” Without saying much I just hugged him. He sure has his good moments.
Then Angelica and I looked at each other. We were thinking the same thing: Where does all this love come from? Not that I think we are an unloving family, but our regular mornings don’t usually spoil us like this. Maybe that was the answer: This was not a regular morning. Instantly I remembered. It was Easter Friday. That was day our Lord and Saviour suffered and died on the cross, for the sake of all mankind. At times you just have to follow your heart, so I grabbed the Bible and asked if I could read something for everyone. No one protested (another miracle). So I opened the Gospel of Luke and read his account of the last supper, the suffering in Gethsemane, the false trails, and the final degradation of Jesus when he was nailed on the cross.
After finishing we spoke with our children about the atonement of Christ, and how blessed we were to have felt His unconditional love in our lives, also this very morning. I am convinced that having that peaceful start of Easter made it much better than what it otherwise would have been. But it wasn’t thanks to us. It was thanks to Him! He knew what we needed.
But you know, what we need is no different from what you need. We all need God’s love. It’s the only sure remedy for all the corners of this ol’ world - your’s too.
He thought this looked easy when I did it, but Isak found out for himself that “blowing out” an egg is quite the workout for the lungs. Grandma Silvana (my mother-in-law) is there to support him.
One of many things I love about our Church is that it invites us to not only worship on Sundays or once a year, but teaches us that faith is an every day issue. One thing latter day saints are encouraged to do during the week, for example, is to have family home evening. This is held for most members on Monday night. The whole idea is to have one night a week where each family member has no other plans than those of being together as a family. We believe that family unity is a core essential for happiness, not only within the walls of all our homes, but also within all the borders of society. So to have this opportunity, in a world that is so stressed it never lets us have time for each other, is a wonderful, not to say inspired idea.
This week we had a special guest for family home evening. It was Lena Bomgren, our Ward’s Primary president (the leader of the children’s program in our congregation). We usually see her every week at Church, but meeting her on Sunday, she said that she felt like she wanted to do something more for our family. She and the other’s in our Ward had done so much good for us already, we thought, but we graciously accepted her offer. We sensed her good will and desire to spread love to our children, and perhaps help Johannes to have some fun, thus taking his mind off the pain in his leg - if only for a while.
She knew our kids loved to paint and do crafts (in Swedish: pyssla), so she brought several bags of Easter-fun. After starting our home evening with song and prayer, and a spiritual thought from the father (which my children reminded me had to be very short this time… ha, ha), then we moved on to the activity, as seen below.
Lena is wearing the red sweater. (How about that suspicious look from Clara?)
Our Easter chickens are done. I can’t help but laugh at Isak’s work of art. He made two of these chickens, one of which is “dad”. Guess who? Yep, the tall one. Every time he depicts me somewhere I am always twice as big as the rest. Funny, cause I’m not that big… although I am involuntarily working on it!
Before Lena left we had mom’s delicious brownies with ice cream. Our children spoke casually with Lena, and my wife and I rejoiced that Johannes, especially, had had a few moments to forgot about his medical condition, and just have a good time instead. That meant a lot to us. Sure, for Lena this might not have been the greatest sacrifice (cause I know she also enjoyed it), but for us it was the greatest blessing of this week. And we know that she did it to make us and our children happy, without any conditions, nor payment from Church funds. Just love - shown in pure service.
So we name her “Angel of the week”, our Easter Angel.
