Holy Week Reading

Each year during Lent my wife puts away her usual novels and reads non-fiction Christian books. She usually chooses something I've recently added to my library and have recommended to her. This year I took a cue from her. For the past several years I have been stockpiling books that I want to read. However, because of the demands of grad school, most of my acquisitions have gone unread. Stacked not so neatly on my desk, on my bedside table, or stuffed into open spaces on my bookshelves at home or at the office, the tomes have been patiently waiting to be picked up and read. Now that my dissertation is done and done I have a bit more time. After reading "for fun" over the past few weeks I finally made it down in my bedside table stack to Anne Rice's two book Christ the Lord series. I started the first one, Out of Egypt, on Wednesday of Holy Week. I finished it on Good Friday and started The Road to Cana.

I love Rice's writing style. Several summers ago I read all of the Vampire Chronicles (When vampire books were cool the last go round). She is a great story teller. It was nice to be able to immerse my imagination into the first century world of Jesus childhood and then young adulthood as he struggled to figure out the birth stories told about him. The books became my devotional reading for the weekend. Between family activities and chores I nestled into the couch or a chair on the porch and traveled back in time to the dusty roads of Nazereth. As they say, "I laughed, I cried."

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, was a perfect day. I read before church and after we got home from dinner (at Chef Mings). I read sitting outside on the porch, feeling the cool breezes and hearing the laughter of my children as I read of Jesus walking the roads between Cana and Nazereth. As I got sleepy I moved to the couch in the den. I wandered with Jesus in the wilderness after his Baptism by his cousin John. As the afternoon turned to evening, I journeyed with Jesus and his disciples to the wedding at Cana. When I read the last lines, with tears in my eyes, I could not wait to begin the next chapter. The only question now is which version, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John?

A simple thing....

When I openned Karlie's "pack-pack" after school yesterday I found a treasure. Her "best friend" had given her a letter sometime during the school day. Karlie quickly tucked the note securly into her backpack so as not to lose it or have it "collected" by the teacher for an example of her friend's writing ability. When I asked Karlie about the note, she beamed, "It's from my friend Kim! She wrote me a letter! Let me read it for you, "You are my BEST friend Karlie!"
Such a simple note. Such a tiny chore. Such a treasured gift.
I know the power that words of encouragement can play in the lives of those around us. However, most times, even if I think about how important,
special,
talented,
gifted,
loved,
someone is, it is rare that I take the brief seconds to send a text, jot a note, or write a letter. How silly of me. I hope & pray that Karlie's treasured letter will stay in my mind for a long time, urging me to take the time to do such a simple thing that might make someone's day.