I’m Jemima L. Yeggs, a.k.a. Stinker.  Pink Lady Apple Yeggs, my landlady and my auntie, wants to read about how younger people, especially couples respond to what the Bible says.  And she wants to know how God is at work at Lily the Pink.

We went to the restroom this Sunday to go to the bathroom, no primping was needed.  We had just finished a sunrise service in the Crystal Mountain and then breakfast where our new Sunday school class was to be held.  We were growing.  Due to it being Easter, no one had any business trips, not even the storm chasers.  And Aunt Pink said that a new couple would be attending, and I did not think we would fit in her office, even though it was rather large.  So, the slow eaters in the den might become accidental attendees.  The den had overflow diners from the conference center, since the sunrise service invited others to attend, not just the usual vespers crowd.

We even had Grannie Fannie helping with the children, all the children from the campus.  This meant that the usual nursery staff was helping little Easter egg hunts all over the campus.  Greta, Madeline Lothrop Morrisey, and Sgt. Maude Lothrop helped Grannie’s activities, that would be repeated in more earnestness after the church service.  Maude was on leave, visiting her family, and she was army trained as an EMT, but we hoped her skills would not be needed.  Since there were some children too small for Easter egg hunting, Jochebed, Joseline, Mary Jo and Menzie volunteered to watch the little ones, but they would sit in an area close enough to participate in the class.

When I arrived, at the center of the big table, Arabella said, “I heard this table was where the Rotten Apples made all their big decisions.  Can I spit on the table?”

I smiled, “I thought some people would be concerned about that.  Aunt Pink was concerned also.”

Aunt Pink walked over.  She first turned to Arabella, “To answer Arabella’s question, if you spit on this clean table with your filthy germs, young lady, you will clean the entire table.  Do you understand?”

Arabella whipped out a tissue of some kind and she vigorously rubbed a spot near where she was sitting.  “Okay, much better, no one can tell.”  Then Fireball sunk her head between her shoulders and giggled, another of her silly jokes.

Aunt Pink turned to me and winked, “I had the same question that our little Fireball had.  After the emancipation and before this place turned into a Crystal Mountain with a cider operation attached, I prayed very hard over this room and specifically this table.  My office now was my office then, but also my prison cell.  The Rotten Apples would meet in the den here once every other month helping themselves to the ladies, but their usual meeting place was the barn at the Orchard.  Then they met here all the time after Fuji Apple’s disappearance.  After emancipation, I could not conceive of having business meetings where the decisions of where the illegal drugs were sold and what children are hurt and who might be killed.  Therefore, I called in Rev C.S.L. and Jerry, excuse me, Father Jerome, the abbot at the monastery.  They got a couple of other pastors to join them, and they did a thorough blessing of everything in this room.  There should be no evil spirits left over from that period of time.  Some of you may not believe in that kind of thing, but I personally felt more calm after they had finished.  The only business discussed at this table now is cider operation business, but I might bow to Thomas when he needs a place for his feeding the homeless at Tracy.  That may not sound very grammatical, but the acronym that has caught on with those that attend the meeting is that they are the FHAT.  So, Arabella, I thank you for bringing it up, and I’ll critique your cleaning skills later.  But before I go, this table and room is wired.  You do not need to shout.  Talk normally and the speakers amplify your voice, almost instantaneously.  If you shout from a corner of the room, away from the table, there will be a decided echo.  And I want to introduce two new class members, Brenton Munsford and Carla Jackson.  They live nearby and either drive over or walk.  I think the high schoolers already know them.”

Carla smiled, “I see a lot of my teammates.  Margie, Josey, Soapy, and Menzie and their boyfriends.  But I don’t see Josie’s boyfriend.  Where’s Daniel?”

Josie held up crossed fingers.  “He is the youngest of the Easter egg hunters.  I’m just hoping he hasn’t run Grannie Fannie crazy by now.”

Carla asked, “And Brooke wants to know who the plumber of this group is?  Her father is losing business.”

Blake said, “That would be me, but all I do are the little jobs, snaking out the drains and fixing little things.  I hear the ladies are taking pride in their apartments so there are less tough things to flush like maybe a brush…  Not much of that anymore.”

Darrell said, “And if it’s carpentry work, that’s me.”

Carla snickered, “Hey, I am not here to shoot the messenger, Brooke’s Dad is doing just fine snaking hairbrushes out of the sewer lines in the rich folk neighborhoods, and they tip better.”

Irusya said, “What I remember of the old plumber, his tip was looking at the girls.”

Carla snickered, “That sounds like him, but he’s harmless.  Looking around, I see a lot of Turtle-eers.”

Dr. Ellie said, “Did you hear that, B.B.?  That could be worked into a future episode.”  B.B. snickered, but she was writing her notes down feverishly.

Arabella asked, “Do turtles even have ears?”

Michael whispered, “Don’t overthink it, Belle.”

Brenton laughed, “I recognize Dr. MacDougall.  He is a big fan of the softball team, and I think Missy will actually teach him the rules of the game before the season’s over.  But there are simply too many people here to get to know all in one setting.”

Carla snickered, “That, dear, and the fact that you get the hives when you introduce yourself to more than three.  I think that comes from you playing golf – four at a time.”

I laughed, “Okay then, since Joseph gave the sunrise service, let’s bow our heads in prayer.  Lord, thank you for what you did so many years ago that we celebrate this weekend.  You gave us the victory over sin and death.  Help us praise you in this class.  In Your name I pray, Amen.  He is risen!”

Half the class said, “He is risen, indeed.”

I giggled, “You can do better.  He is risen!”

Everyone replied, even the tagalongs.  “He is risen, indeed!”

I asked Emmett.  “What is our song today?  We have so many to choose from.”

Emmett said, “I was thinking of a song that talks about the Sabbath day in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  It is a great song by Gloria Gaither, probing into what might have been going through the disciples minds in one verse and then Jesus’ mother Mary, unwilling for her son’s death to be the final word.  But the title of the song gives the rest away, Then Came the Morning.  He led us with Then Came the Morning by Bill and Gloria Gaither.  Dr. Ben, Michael, Samuel, and Emmett sang the first verse.  Menzie, Arabella and Mercedes Lothrop sang the second verse.  While playing the chorus a few times, everyone started joining in, before Arabella hit the really high notes for the final time through the chorus.

There was silence in the room.  I even heard some crying in the peanut gallery.  Aunt Pink, Gwen and my mother-in-law, Naomi, were hugging each other and passing out tissues.  Then the applause started.

When the applause died down, Carla said, “Wow!  What do I have to do to be part of that?  It sounded like angels were singing.”

Emmett asked, “What part do you sing?”

Carla shrugged, “I don’t know.  I just sing, but I doubt if I could hit the high notes that the young girl hit.”

Emmett nodded, “The young girl is my sister, Arabella, a.k.a. Fireball when she is on the Turtle Team.  So, I will send you a link to a video, sheet music, and such.  You can sing second soprano which is the tune of the song most of the time.  And we have practices Friday after school and Saturday.”

Carla said, “I’m on the softball team and I go to Brenton’s golf matches whenever possible, but I will try.  I love to sing.”

Arabella squeaked, “Great, more girl power!”

I said, “We are going to take a second look at the Attributes of God.  On the first time through, we defined what the attributes are and how the Bible shows that God has those attributes.  But as we go through them again, we are going to look at how those attributes affect our lives, maybe how they change how we pray or look at our problems in life.  Stuff like that.  We would have done this application part on the first time through but our class is usually cut short by having to catch the buses to go to the Sunday school classes at our individual churches.  Our first topic is God’s Infinitude.”

Blaise (Colossians 3:1-3): “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

Blaise snarled, “But this doesn’t say anything about infinity!”

I smiled, “Exactly, it tells us our relationship with God and thus our response to His attributes.  One of our biggest problems is to think we have an easy task, and we could do it alone.  Then, it blows up in our face because we did not rely on God.  Let’s take Brenton for example.  Sorry, I know this is your first time here, but last week we had a golfing analogy, and I felt ill-equipped.  But this week, let’s look at your game after becoming a Christian.  If you say a little prayer before each shot, something like ‘God please guide me,’ you might find your reading of the greens is better.  Your aim in the fairway is better.  You aren’t pointing and drawing attention to yourself.  You are quietly acknowledging that God is giving you what you need to succeed.”

Blaise said, “So, since God is in Heaven, we set our sights on Heaven.  Any power, intellect, or being in the right place kind of timing comes from God.  Our hearts and minds should be devoted to heavenly things because we have died to self and it is all God, right?  So then, why do we get paid for a job well done?  Shouldn’t God get paid?”

Easy shrugged, “Little bro, you have to eat and giving God a tenth, even when you have died to self, that still leaves a lot for self.”

Blaise nodded.

Easy (Psalm 147:5): “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”

“The infinitude part there is the last three words.  God has no limits.  We have talked about Moses of Narbonne, talking about how philosophers cannot explain or understand infinity.  Dividing by zero is a good example of infinity.”  Easy said.

Arabella groaned, “I thought you can’t divide by zero?”

Blaise nodded, “You get the answer of infinity.  That’s why in normal mathematics you do not divide by zero.  I agree with Easter.  We can describe it, but only some get the idea, and those that get the idea cannot grasp it completely.  But from a spiritual perspective, we need to understand that no matter how good we think we are, God is not just better; God is infinitely better.  I struggle with that one.  Things have come too easy for me.  Then, I cannot get a gadget to work in the lab, and my sister makes what looks like a cosmetic change and it starts working.  Those humbling times are times that I need to remind myself that God has me beat hands down.”

Sophie turned to Josie, who was sitting next to her, “Look for cracks forming in the earth’s crust, Josie.  Blaise admitted he does not know everything, and he gave me credit for something.  The world must be coming to an end!”

Margie said, “Calm down, Soap.  Blaise might have admitted to not being as smart as God, but his complement of you was a backhanded one.  He made it sound like it was totally unbelievable that you could fix one of his inventions.”

Sophie looked as if the lightbulb had come on a little late, “Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right.”

I laughed, “Okay, people, this was good.  Infinity is hard to grasp, and still we have had some people that gave us reasons why it is important.  Since God loves us, no matter how preoccupied He is elsewhere, there is His infinite presence to listen to our prayers, and His infinite power to do something about it.  We will look at God’s immensity next week, but we might need to close now since we have to figure out where our children are.”

Lauren came from behind Menzie and patted her on the knee, “Mommie!  The buses!”

Menzie gasped, “Where did you come from?”

Lauren said, “I have enough Easter eggs.  Daniel was the first one to find an egg and then he sat chewing on the plastic egg without looking for more eggs.”

Josie laughed, “That’s Daniel.  Anything he picks up goes straight to his mouth.”

Menzie asked Lauren, “But you could have gone over in the corner to play.”

Lauren smiled, “I walked up to listen to Aunt Jemima.  She is a nice Mommie, but you are the best.”

I smiled, “We are going to use the really short Mizpah benediction during this time.  Arabella, you can look it up or ask Mr. Dictionary next week what the Mizpah benediction means.  Everyone, bow your heads in prayer.  “May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.’” (Genesis 31:49b)

Carla asked, “Mr. Dictionary?”

I shrugged, “Arabella named Easy that when he defined a few terms for her.  It’s a class code name, I suppose.”

Then I heard something that sounded vaguely familiar, I turned to see Sally Mae getting red in the face.  “Darrell, I don’t think these are Braxton Hicks.  These are labor pains.  My water broke.”

Mary Jo went into cleaning mode.  She said she’d get a ride to the hospital later.  After all, Sally Mae and Darrell were her best friends.

Jochebed, eight months pregnant herself, went into midwife mode.  Darrell ran to get their bag and Aunt Pink said that there was an SUV parked in the bakery parking lot.  Many of the other vehicles were tied up taking people to church or blocked by the buses and vans in front of the building, ready for pickup of Easter Sunday church goers.  For the Lily the Pink crowd, they had no additional vehicles, since everyone that went to church was there most Sundays (cider operation even continued on Easter). Easter volunteered to drive, but Georges said he needed to be near his with and Easter was needed to take Stormie and her mother, that’s me, to church. Besides, Georges, being a police detective in Organized Crime, had the portable siren and flashing light if needed.

Later in the day, Ellie Kay Driver was born.  Darrell Driver, the proud father, had suggested Race Car Driver or NASCAR Driver, but his suggestions were vetoed.  Mr. Dictionary, my loving husband, suggested Easter Driver, not wanting to be the only Easter in the big city of Tracy.  But since Dr. Ellie had delivered Mary Jo’s Frank, in a way, Dr. Ellie was part of the reason the Driver’s moved to Tracy.  Baby and mother are both doing great.

HAPPY EASTER

Credits

I am now starting to use the David E. Fessenden study guides for The Attributes of God, A Journey into the Father’s Heart by A.W. Tozer, in two volumes. Again, no quotations, just some Scriptures that keep the flow going.

Ellie Kay could have been Ellie Mae, like her mother Sally Mae, but then it might be confused with Ellie Mae Clampett of the classic television show, The Beverly Hillbillies.

And here is Then Came the Morning sung by Ernie Haase and Signature Sound.  The song is by Bill and Gloria Gaither, but they sing both verses before the chorus, and they add a little “Morning has Broken” in with the chorus.  I picked this version instead of the Guy Penrod version sung by the entire Gaither Homecoming crowd.  It sounds more “possible” for an amateur Sunday school class group, although Em and Menzie are far from amateur.  I chose this song because, as Gloria Gaither hints in the verses, Jesus’ followers had mixed feelings.  “How could we have been so wrong?”, but then came the morning.  Sorry, I cannot type that last sentence without getting wet eyes.  How much do we get things muddled by our weak faith, but then comes the morning.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.