Holy Family Shrine in Gretna Nebraska
Holy Family Shrine, Gretna Nebraska
The Holy Family Shrine can be seen as people travel on I-80 between Omaha and Lincoln Nebraska, although many do not know what they are seeing. It sits high on a hill and for those who take the time to venture off the beaten path.
It is very peaceful to walk through the gardens and reflect in the chapel. It is rumored that the Thorncrown Chapel in the Ozarks was the inspiration, but this I do not know for sure.
Lorie Line During Lenten Vespers
My favorite church season of the year is Lent. It’s the time of reflection and I get to play the piano in church every Wednesday night. Lorie Line is my favorite pianist and has amazing piano arrangements just perfect for Lent.
I have played the piano for Lenten services at for Trinity Lutheran Church since 1997 (I think) and sometimes I think I should change up my music. But I keep going back to the Heritage Collection II because I love these standard hymns. They are friends, they give me comfort. I played this book during a very stressful time in my life and sitting at the piano at the front of the church listening to the reading of the passion served as a therapy.
Hymn included in the Heritage Collection
I have played this book from front to back and most pieces are at the intermediate level and have a strong arpeggio style which is easy to play but very stylish and sounds wonderful.
As the journey of Jesus takes me through Lent, Good Friday and Easter I am humbled, I pray for peace, I glory at the promise of resurrection on Good Friday and celebrate Christ resurrection on Easter.
Now that I’ve learned the significance of red doors on church’s I’m on the lookout for red doors to photograph. My first red door was in Connecticut, this one I found in Nebraska City at the oldest Episcopal church in Nebraska, founded in 1857.
Red Door at a church in Nebraska
Christ The Lord is Risen Indeed!
Christ the Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia! Happy Easter to one and God Bless you and your families.
The regular scheduled numbered days will resume tomorrow. But today, on Easter, this image of the Easter Lilies and Christ our Lord take center stage.
Sunday School Lesson About Easter
I love teaching Sunday School, especially when I have a visual aid that gets the kids excited. On Palm Sunday I used this Resurrection Plant to show the how the death of Jesus Christ and the Easter miracle of resurrection brings everlasting life and rebirth with the forgiveness of sins.
For the past three years this Resurrection Plant, also known as the Rose of Jerico, or the Miracle Fern, has been tucked away in my kitchen basket forgotten. Not this year. I had extra students this Sunday, as a teacher was out, and the cute girl above is not normally a student of mine (but a younger sister). She had such an angelic face and adorable smile I couldn’t resist.
We placed the Resurrection Plant in a bowl of water and I promised to take pictures during the next 24 hours and bring them the next week, along with the plant. Here is the sequence.
Place in Water (Your sins)
Time: 2 hours (SOOC)
Time: 8 hours (SOOC)
Time: 10 hours (SOOC without custom white balance)
Time: 24 hours (SOOC) A New Life in Christ
The kids decided they wanted to plant this remarkable plant and keep it in our classroom as a reminder of the miracle of Christs’ death and Resurrection. I think that is a good idea. Sounds like another Sunday School activity to me. I bought my Resurrection Plant in Arizona desert, but they can also be purchased online on, where else, Amazon
Photography Tips: You will notice the photo at the 10 hour mark is distinctly “off color” and the others are pure white, even with the SOOC, straight out of the camera notation. I left this on purpose. I have been experimenting with my cameras white balance and none of the preset options (fluorescent, incandescent) gave me the results I wanted, so I tried the custom and LOVED the results.
Mind you I don’t have a fancy camera, just a Fuji S1500, and I’m sure other point and clicks have the same option, just many people don’t use them. All I did was hold a plain white piece of paper two inches in front of the lens and press ok. Between this, and my use of continuous focus, I have noticed a considerable difference in the quality of my indoor pictures.
Today was my day of playing around in Photoshop again. This time with plug-ins from Xero-Graphics. The subject my home church of Trinity Lutheran in Murdock Nebraska. I was driving by ans a friend was taking pictures for our upcoming open house dedicating the new fellowship hall. So I stopped, said “Hi” and took a few myself. Turned out to be a perfect subject for some special effects.
Which one do you like best and why?
#1: Straight out of camera (SOOC)
#2; Xero Tweak w/burn edge
#3 Xero Illustrator w/burn edge
#4: Xero Line Art
#5: Not sure which effect, misname it, but it's a xero effect, I can find it again.
Here is a different photograph, but taken at the same time in black and white. I’ll tell you which is my favorite after the comments and voting is tallied.
#6 Different image, taken at the same time, but an effect I like
Meeting for the first time
The greatest gift someone can give is life. For various reasons, pregnancy, a baby, and a family is does not fit, and is not the right timing. So choices are made. A choice made forty eight years ago resulted in a baby boy placed with a farm family in western Nebraska through Nebraska Childrens Home. Then the same baby boy made a similar choice twenty seven years later and gave the gift of life to another rural Nebraska couple.
During those many years the father wondered what had become of his son. He hoped to eventually meet him, hoped and prayed that day would come. The son too also longed to one day meet his birth father who had written him letters when he was a baby.
Neither officially searched for each other, they were both quite happy with their lives, yet through a course of events and random contacts the unbelievable happened. After reading this story I dare you to think of the course of life to be a random act of coincidences.
Randy (on the left, also my fiancee) moved into a small apartment complex in Lincoln NE about three years ago. This small community of neighbors has provided each one acts of kindness in ranging from sharing meals, rides to the doctor, friendship, or just an encouraging word. This weekend Scott, who lives across the courtyard from Randy, called him over to tell him he had some news.
Scott was helping a buddy out with a car and through the course of this repair got a ride from Brandon (right). Scott was struck my this young man’s presence and appearance and said the commonly stated expression, “I know you from somewhere.”
The normal course of the conversation ensued, referring to places they lived, schools, churches, and people. It got around to Brandon stating “I don’t know, I’m adopted, all I know is my birth fathers’ name is Randy and he lives in Lincoln.”
It was then that Scott looked at Brandon and a said “I know your Father, he lives across from me and you are his spitting image.” I can’t even imagine the thoughts and feelings that were going through their mind and heart. They both told me later it made them shake and their hearts race. Phone numbers were exchanged.
When Scott told this to Randy the feeling intensified. There was no doubt, no questioning in any of these three men. Each one believed that this good news was the truth. As Randy and I were fixing supper he received the phone call from his first born son who wanted to know his Father. They spoke for a short time, as it was obvious that both wanted to meet.
An invitation to supper was extended and less than a hour later Father and son walked across the yard, shook hands, and embraced for the first time. Both were shaking and tears were shed. The picture above was taken shortly after, when they came to the door. The resemblance is uncanny, not just in appearances but in how much they are alike.
Both are amazing singers, sang in their University choirs, both took nine years of piano lessons, love to fish (and have made arrangements to go fishing), are very good cooks, and are avid movie buffs with a vast movie collection. At times they have only lived a few miles from each other.
I know many people who are adopted, including my self. Some have the negative view point that they were rejected by their birth parents. I look it at as the biggest unselfish gift a Mother (and Father) can give. I am thankful for life, for being given parents who wanted me enough to go above and beyond, to accept the gift of life from other parents who loved their child enough to give them a second chance.
Over the years I have often thought of looking for my own birth parents, if for only to say “Thank You.” Another choice could have been made, and I’m so glad it wasn’t.
I don’t believe in coincidence, but that God has a plan for our life. There are people placed in our lives for a reason, so the work of God can be displayed. This was also the lesson I shared with my Sunday School students this Sunday and part of Pastors sermon. There are events that happen to remind us of Christ unconditional love and forgiveness. We just need to open our eyes, believe, and have faith.
What lies in the future for these men is unknown, but they both know that this random meeting was not random, and both are embracing the amazing work of God.
Day 114: Church
During Lent and Advent vespers on Wednesday night I am the piano accompanist during church. I love those nights, especially during Lent, sitting a few feet from Pastor, listening to the Passion expand each week until Easter.
I try to arrive at church early, about forty-five minutes so I can warm up and play some pre-service music. Lorie Line is my favorite and The Heritage Collection II and play it from cover to cover.
Editing Notes: The frame is part of the MCP Gallery Frame action
Faith, it’s not just black and white…
Sometimes faith is shades of gray. As some of you know who have been reading my blog my mother died a few months ago in January.
Although she made sure my brother and I were baptized, attended Sunday school and church every week, it was out of duty and respect to my God Mother Granny Turcotte. After we were confirmed, she never stepped foot in church again. The topic of religion and faith often brought a scornful look to her face and I never knew why because my faith has always brought me a great deal of comfort.
I grew up in a small country church, Grace Episcopal in Broad Brook Connecticut, and God brought me to the Lutheran church in college. My church home now is Missouri Synod Trinity Lutheran in Murdock Nebraska.
Not only did my Mother cut herself from God, but from family and friends. She didn’t think it was important to create relationships with relatives and her children. I rarely saw any of my aunts and uncles who lived in Oklahoma and California. The few cousins I knew as a child drifted as I got older.
There was one family member that consistently and faithfully maintained contact with her Aunt, my Mother. Cousin Gail. I found saved cards, photos, and letters in my Mothers desk of an older cousin I never knew and never met. In February a forwarded letter from Gail arrived in my mailbox, so I reached out with the news of Mom’s passing, including my email address. An email arrived a week later.
Here is where God’s grace and divine intervention becomes apparent.
Gail and I learned quite a bit from each other the next week. Her Mother (Mom’s sister) was also not religious. We lived very parallel lives and had similar experiences and troubling childhoods with both of us having a difficult relationship with our Mothers.
During the normal course of telling each other about our lives Gail stated that she is a faithful member of Missouri Synod Trinity Lutheran Church in Woodward Oklahoma. This news brought goosebumps, tears to my eyes, a lump in my throat, and a prayer of thanks to God. How can this be a coincidence? I believe it’s not.
What does it mean? I don’t know. But I do take comfort in this has to be a sign, a message, an indication of God’s hand in our lives. Acknowledgment that to everything there is a purpose. Wait and the message will be revealed. Listen and hear God’s word in the world around us, from the people around us.
Better yet, when you find yourself in church pray for your family, your friends, those who have lost faith, who are lost. The Lord Jesus Christ will find them and guide them home. Gail’s Mother, my aunt, and the last of the five brothers and sisters, died last week. I truly believe our prayers that were delivered up to God were received and now our Mothers are safely and lovingly in the arms of Jesus and are at peace.
Related Articles
Catholic Church in Connecticut
I didn’t know of the significance of red doors on churches until I read, Finally A Red Door, on another Project 365 blog. Although this door is of a Catholic church in Connecticut the symbolism of a red door in churches spans many denominations. It is definitely a more popular tradition in older churches.
According to Dr. Richard C Hoefler, dean of Christ Chapel at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, “Christians have entered into worship, into the presence of God, through the blood of Christ.” It is also said that a red door in the Lutheran Church harkens back to the time of Martin Luther, who posted his 95 Theses on the red doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany—the crimson color symbolizes the church as part of the Reformation. (Pastor Kuhlman, can you confirm?)
On the website St. David’s Episcopal Church in Laurinburg, NC it explains: “Red Front Doors. The red doors symbolize the blood of Christ, which is our entry into salvation. They also remind us of the blood of the martyrs, the seeds of the church.”
Historically a church has been a place of sanctuary, a place where a soldier could not pursue an enemy, much like when one takes refuge in Christ the enemy, the devil and evil, cannot pursue and destroy you. Thank you Bonnie for bringing this little known history to my attention.
By the way, this door is at St. Francis Assisi in South Windsor Connecticut.
