It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress… – John 13:1-2

This Holy Week I have found myself experiencing a kind of tension, the solemnity of remembrance somehow rubbing up against the celebration of spring. It is as if all creation is rushing in with the good news before the resurrection, before even the crucifixion.

So today, mindful that it is Mandy Thursday and preparing myself for evening worship and communion, I also cannot help but share these images of new life and the glory of not only creation but re-creation. I will most certainly be taking the bread and the wine with a full dose of resurrection joy already filling my heart.

All these pictures are from the little cul-de-sac in our corner of Tyler Run. I could take a photograph of our home ten different times over the span of a week and it would have changed completely at every click of the shutter. The bursting out of new azalea blooms, the fading of the dogwood, the pathway between our houses, the emergence of new color.

I find beauty at every turn. I find new evidence of resurrection each new morning. I am grateful every hour of every day.

Enjoy this latest collection. There will be more. Of course, ours is a resurrection faith and it will reveal itself in new and challenging ways for as long as I have the eyes to see.

It is Thursday of Holy Week. Come to church, everything is coming into focus – DEREK