spring has sprung

Well it's a few days since Spring is officially set to begin, but isn't it just like her to arrive early to the party.

The weather around here has been downright dreamy.  We are soaking up the rays, and the kids are getting pink cheeks and coming home filthy after all the playing there is to be done.  We are wasting no time making up for the months we spent inside.

It's the seventeeth of March and we feel like we could conquer the world, one adventure at a time. 

I'm a sucker for a good changing of season pace. 

I agree with Mr. C.S. Lewis who makes the astute comparison between this glorious season and the hope that we have in Jesus.  It is life-giving.

scenes from life lately

Because sometimes words leave us, and we sit back in awe of the life that God has given us through His son.  Here are some snapshots from life's happenings since we last spoke.

 

Zach and Piper before their "date night" to the library and out for ice cream.  She insists on carrying that purse just about everywhere these days, and I try hard to suppress my giggles (and tears) at how grown-up she is.

These two are really becoming great friends, something I hope stays with them through the years.  I still count my siblings among my greatest friends and closest confidants.

Speaking of growing up, I snapped this photo one afternoon while Gabe and I were playing after his nap.  When I look at him, I still see a baby.  But in this photo I'm starting to see glimpses of a little boy.

I've started collecting moving boxes (hint: "moving" boxes, which means there is an update soon to come), but love the way that Piper and Gabriels' imaginations came alive the moment they saw them.  In this photo they were train conductors.

Papa and Gabriel at the park on one of our first warm-ish days of Spring. 

I think Piper has suffered the most being cooped up all Winter.  She has wasted no time in becoming re-acquainted with the sunshine.

all that we have

What if today we hung our hats on this beautiful truth:  Christ is all that we have.

What if we grabbed hold of it tightly and planted it deep down within our souls so that before they had the chance to grow weary in the face of our sorrows and trials we might wield a sword of truth, and bravely stand before the darkness as it closes in.

What if, rather than crying out to Christ in desperation only after we have exhausted every resource that we stubbornly place our hopes in, we rested in the knowledge that nothing we deal with is outside of His sovereignty.

In my sinful nature, I buck up against the idea that someone other than me rules the universe.  In God's grace, I can triumph knowing that I am desperate without His loving, ruling hand.

^{Colossians 2
9} For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; ¹¹ and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; ¹² having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. ¹³ When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, ¹⁴ having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵ When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

Christ is ALL that we have.