There are Disappointments in life, and Surprises, and Michigan's loss to UCLA is One if not entirely the Other.  Out in Longmont, Colorado, our "mom" osprey has been waiting patiently but so far in vain for her longtime mate to arrive from winter migration to start mating season by the waters at their nest at Boulder County Fairgrounds is Both. Head tucked under wing, she's sleeping single in a double bed as I write this morning. Humans who care cleared off their old nest early last month, hopefully to clean away any poisons in the nest and avoid a repeat of last year's tragedies of nature, so there's a lot of rebuilding to do before eggs can be laid. If not "dad" then some new suitor will need to show up with a fish to begin her seduction and ignite her passions. UPDATE!! Mid-morning arrival of ?someone? Don't know about you, with thoughts of spring training for fall 2021, I've given up on hopes for Michigan's return to CFB greatness, ...

Good morning, friends, Thinking that, unless someone comes with something else to be discussed (which takes priority over any lesson plan I may bring), we will look at these two passages of Scripture, which include part of the designated Bible readings for today, Palm Sunday, and also Mark's presentation of the Resurrection (seeing our Sunday School class will not be meeting next Sunday, Easter Day). As well as the worship bulletin for today, these will be our Bible lookups/handouts for class this morning, and we'll see how it goes! Philippians 1:27-2:11 (NRSV) 1: 27  ... live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, 28  and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing. 29  For he ...

  About our Gospel Hymn, this wonderful poem by John Donne!   Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun, which is my sin, though it were done before? Wilt thou forgive those sins, through which I run,  and do run still, though still I do deplore? When thou hast done, thou hast not done, for I have more. The Reverend John Donne,  Church of England clergyman, Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, London:      poet, lawyer, scholar, preacher, soldier,      charmer, womanizer,       seducer (read Donne’s erotically charged,            yet repulsively gross bloody poem “The Flea” !! )      one time wealthy young man about London,        sinner par excellence - - John Donne loved to play with words,  and with women, and to joust poetically with God. Our gospel hymn just now is filled with Donne’s words playing off Donne’s own name: “when thou ha...

Ancient Lightning May Have Sparked Life on Earth More than a billion strikes a year likely provided an essential element for organisms A fulgurite made of fused quartz found in Florida  (Wild Horizons / Universal Images Group via Getty Images) By  Riley Black SMITHSONIANMAG.COM  MARCH 16, 2021 12:00PM https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-lightning-may-have-sparked-life-earth-180977248/ In the beginning יְהִ֣י Genesis gives us two completely different yet both wonderful creation stories that, if we stop to read and Reason and read again, make more and more sense - - each depending on how one needs and images God in the context of life's moment, perspective, gazing into TImeSpace from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope or looking up into the heavens as Aslan sings Creation into Being. It is always God for us whether distant or close, both are Heilsgeschichte, holy history, our sacred stories that, like the tribal stories of Native Americans, need only be tru...