Snowflake falls on lawn,

lingers briefly, melts, is gone -

    winter's soft first kiss.

 

Although according to the weather forecast, "winter's soft first kiss" is rapidly going to turn into something quite a bit more passionate!  Snuggle in.

And finally a comment on last Sunday's lesson - 

(I don't know which of my heroes I owe this thought to - sounds like Robert Farrar Capon, but could have been Fred Buechner.)  Jesus said "Today you will be with me in Paradise" and the $100,000 question is, "who was he speaking to?"  

 

Now I know we've all learned that he was talking to "The Repentant Thief", which turns the story into a nice kind of Santa Clause-y one - God/Jesus making a list and checking it twice.  I think there was a song in The Cotton Patch Gospel - the guys are taking off on a TV evangelist - "Maybe if you're good enough, you can have a blind date with God".  

 

But -

 

if you want the hard-core, "Free grace and dying love, ring them golden bells" gospel, you have to say that he is saying it to the repentant thief,

AND to the unrepentant thief,

AND to the soldiers,

AND to the passers by

AND to the women

AND to the 12 who are gone into hiding

- the entire assemblage, the whole kit and kaboodle - 

because only then can you also hear him saying it to you and me -

"Today you will be with me in Paradise, because whoever and wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I am and will be there by your side, and I will never, ever leave you alone."

Free grace and dying love....