Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you right here:
For behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
One of the Most Wonderful Pieces of Writing
About Spring To Ever Grace the English Language:
Every moment the patches of green grew bigger and the patches of snow grew smaller.
Every moment more and more of the trees shook off their robes of snow.
Soon, wherever you looked, instead of white shapes you saw the dark green of firs or the black prickly branches of bare oaks and beeches and elms. Then the mist turned from white to gold and presently cleared away altogether. Shafts of delicious sunlight struck down on to the forest floor and overhead you could see a blue sky between the tree tops.
Soon there were more wonderful things happening. Coming suddenly round a corner into a glade of silver birch trees Edmund saw the ground covered in all directions with little yellow flowers – celandines. The noise of water grew louder. Presently they actually crossed a stream. Beyond it they found snowdrops growing.
“Mind your own business!” said the dwarf when he saw that Edmund had turned his head to look at them; and he gave the rope a vicious jerk. But of course this didn’t prevent Edmund from seeing. Only five minutes later he noticed a dozen crocuses growing round the foot of an old tree – gold and purple and white. Then came a sound even more delicious than the sound of the water.
Close beside the path they were following a bird suddenly chirped from the branch of a tree. It was answered by the chuckle of another bird a little further off. And then, as if that had been a signal, there was chattering and chirruping in every direction, and then a moment of full song, and within five minutes the whole wood was ringing with birds’ music, and wherever Edmund’s eyes turned he saw birds alighting on branches, or sailing overhead or chasing one another or having their little quarrels or tidying up their feathers with their beaks.
“Faster! Faster!” said the Witch.
There was no trace of the fog now. The sky became bluer and bluer, and now there were white clouds hurrying across it from time to time. In the wide glades there were primroses. A light breeze sprang up which scattered drops of moisture from the swaying branches and carried cool, delicious scents against the faces of the travellers. The trees began to come fully alive. The larches and birches were covered with green, the laburnums with gold. Soon the beech trees had put forth their delicate, transparent leaves. As the travellers walked under them the light also became green. A bee buzzed across their path.
“This is no thaw,” said the dwarf, suddenly stopping. “This is Spring.”
– C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Chapter 11
Round up of What’s Happening around the Farm
In which Melba celebrates spring…
(and shares a sneak peak of what she and Aurora are working on)
And Caleb and Melba use the Cradle to Cross wreath in anticipation of Easter…
And Aurora does some spring cleaning; parting with paintings from years past…
Check in next week to Keep following Along
Lord of the Dance:
(Un)Surprisingly Scientific Scriptural Prescriptions
for a Joyful Heart
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
A man is diagnosed with an incurable disease that attacks his joint and bones. The doctors offer little hope of any treatment.
The man, deciding to not give up on himself, checks himself into a hotel to watch comedy films in an effort to take as high a dose as possible of “laughter being the best medicine.”
And it works!
And it’s a true story — that man was Norman Cousins, the editor of The New York Post.
The story is, of course, a little bit more nuanced, as most stories are, than the version just told. Norman Cousins attributed a large part of his recovery to a very high dose of vitamin C and the will to live, in addition to his regimen of laughter. He also more than readily acknowledged it could have been one of the biggest possible cases of a self-willed placebo effect known to man, but so be it – the results speak for themselves. He had recovered from the unrecoverable.
You can read his thoughts on his recovery here in the New England Journal of Medicine.
But, we as Christians shouldn’t be overly surprised by this.
A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:22
This proverb was from Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived.
Most of us are probably fairly aware of the benefit of laughter and a joyful heart being good medicine — but one thing we might not be aware of is of the possibility of the joyful heart being so inextricably tied up with singing and dancing.
Now this idea might not be immediately at hand in our minds as the modern Christian (or, with tongue in cheek, the self-styled frozen chosen)…
…but both David the Psalmist and his son Solomon speak of dance as synonymously intertwined with joy.
Psalm 30:11-12
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!
Ecclesiastes 3:4
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Psalm 149:1-5
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the godly!
Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with salvation.
Let the godly exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
So why aren’t doctors writing out prescriptions for dance classes, or ordering regimens of making the hills alive with music?
Well, it’s a possibility. In a meta-analysis study released last month that compared various possible treatments for depression, dancing had the strongest positive outcome on lowering depression.
In a scriptural context, this is not a surprise at all.
Now — there are some caveats with this statement, as a number of the studies in the meta-analysis were underpowered and should not be taken as being beyond question. The results are meant to point towards future avenues for better studies of the most promising treatments, and hopefully they do stronger studies that further prove out previous result. That being said, the study was relatively conclusive in the very strong benefit of physical movement in lowering depression.
Asterisks, provisos, and qualifications aside, the study is merely a happy little encouragement to the scriptural invitation be full of the joy of the Lord, and to grab a loved one and cut a little footloose.
So in that spirit, do that. Grab a loved one. Dance with them. Wear some silly grins, and do a foxtrot, a polka, or whatever brings some joy!
(or if feeling vegetabley adventurous, you could try the cucumber dance)
Christ cares deeply for the birds of the air, and He cares even so much more for us, and for our enjoyment of the world He has made for us.
And speaking of birds, and to end on a joyful note…
– written by Caleb Voskamp
You can certainly teach this dog a new trick!
Just In Time For Easter!
Looking for a great Easter basket idea?
This exquisite, hand-crafted wooden “Jesus Loves Me” music box and our recent children’s book, Your Brave Song, create a perfect Easter gift together!
The hand-crafted wooden music box features intricate laser engraving, as well as timeless old-world charm and plays the first verse of “Jesus Loves Me” and reminds us–young & old–of God’s love and care for us.
On The Book Stack at The Farm
Read by Nancy Gavilanes‘ recent guest post:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(Because it’s a classic for a reason)
You have to wonder how you can lose something like that!?
The Missing Half of a Colossal Ramses II Statue Has Been Found
Oh God’s world is just so magnificent!
Fearfully and wonderfully made!
And already with opinions on kale vs carrots, just wow!
An old one…
But such a good one!
Let’s celebrate spring!!!
[from our Facebook community – join us?]
You may want to give up on your mountain,
but God has not given up on you
*and He moves mountains.*
Give everything to the One who never gives up on you.
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
