Celebrate Easter!

This last week I had the privilege of spending a day with my wife and a second day with my wife and my camera club buddies hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and taking in the abundant Spring wildflowers God created for us to enjoy.

Field of White Trillium

Showy Orchis

Spring is a special time in the Smokies where there are places with dozens of varieties of wildflowers growing right along hiking trails. Some varieties, like the White Trillium, are abundant with thousands of blooms every where you look. Others, like the Yellow Lady Slipper, Painted Trillium, and Jack in the Pulpit, seems to be more special because they are uncommon. All are beautiful creations.

Yellow Lady Slipper

Jack In The Pulpit

For years June and I walked past the flowers without paying much attention to them. It wasn't until I got into photography that we began to appreciate the beauty in each and every bloom. Look inside the Lady Slippers or up close at the Showy Orchis and you can see God's handy work. We missed so much when we passed these by without stopping to look and appreciate the gifts. Now we take 7 hours to go 4 miles where we used to do it in 2 or 3. It's more important to slow down and appreciate what's around us than to get in those extra miles.

Spring is also a time of Joy. Because God sent His Son to die for us and be resurrected we have the gift of new life. The wildflowers can remind us our new life but unlike the wildflowers our new life lasts forever.

I shared one of my photos of a Painted Trillium on a Smoky Mountain Wildflower website and was blessed with the following comment.

Painted Trillium

" Red for the blood and White for His garment. The beauty of Salvation in a 'flower'. Thanks Lord for dying on the Cross for me"

What a time to Celebrate Resurrection!