I am the Vine; My Father is the Gardener…you are the branches.If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit... John 15:1a and 5a The picturesque town where my husband Rey and I lived in southern France was surrounded by vineyards.Growing up in the Midwest where soy, corn and wheat fields spread across the land, acres of vineyards were an anomaly to us.So every now and then, as we traveled the winding roads of our wine-producing region, our curiosity would get the best of us, and we'd just have to pull our little Fiat over to the side of the road and sneak a peek down one of those neatly manicured rows. Joseph, one of the financiers of the basketball team that my husband played for, happened to be a vinedresser.When he extended an invitation to us, to dine with him at hi...

Some of you may remember that last year at this time my daily awe and wonder walks were the delight of my life. They kept me anchored in the beauty of creation and the wonder of all I see around me. This year I have been restricted to the house. My severe allergies have had me coughing through the night and I have been banned, at least temporarily from my walks. So now I sit in my office or our living room looking out longingly at our cherry tree or neighbor's flowering tree across the street. Occasionally I don my mask and dash out with my camera for a quick photo shoot, and in the process I realize that my focus on the flashy beauty of flowers can mean I lose so much of what God wants to reveal to me. Dying Cherry blossoms Our cherry tree is now adorned with dead and dying blooms, brown ...

I pray...that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which He has called you! Ephesians 1:18 Shutters When my hubby Rey and I were newly married, we found ourselves living in the south of France. Rey had been recruited to play semi-pro basketball in the quaint little town of "Valence sŭr Bäise", just 90 kilometers from the Pyrenees Mountains and the border of Spain. As one might expect, there were innumerable adjustments to be made in a culture quite different from our own. The first and most prominent was getting used to the seven-hour time-zone change. But it was not just our internal clocks that needed tweaking; our taste buds had to learn to acclimate as well. Being typical American's, we were accustomed to eating hamburger, but not to eat...

The last time I went home was in early spring. It had become increasingly obvious that it wasn't feasible for us to keep the property any longer. After all, there was nothing on it anymore. My husband and I drove down the familiar dirt road in silence until we came to the mailbox I had passed a million times throughout my life. But that's where the familiarity ended. When we turned in the driveway, I was met with… nothing. That place where the log house my dad built stood nestled in pines like a postcard was now empty. It looked like a hockey player's mouth where the front teeth had been knocked out. I slowly got out of the car and walked over to where the front door had been. I stood there, in that gaping black hole surrounded by emptiness and burnt trees. I remember falling to the ground...

"Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song." —Pope John Paul II In the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden containing a new tomb in which nobody had yet been laid. Because it was the preparation day and because the garden tomb was conveniently near, they laid Jesus in this tomb. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, and noticed that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she knelt to look into the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus' body had been lain. They said to her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "Because they have t...