Snow for Easter

When I was home in Ohio for Christmas, the weather as 55 degrees with rain.

Today, I’m home again in Ohio for Easter (as a result of my ongoing support development trip). The weather is 30-degrees, with snow!

All the flowers that bloomed are now frozen dead. (The white stuff in the picture is snow.) It’s not the first time I’ve seen snow in Ohio for Christmas Easter, but this is definalty unusual since it’s so late in the spring time.

Billboard Believing

“Believe” is something everyone does. And it’s the subject of these two billboards in Orlando, which are ironically back to back.
This one for Sea World is on State Route 528, aka “The Beachline.” You see it when driving west from the airport, towards the tourist side of Orlando.

Then there’s this one, seen when coming east on Rt 528 towards the airport (for people headed away from the tourist areas).

Both are asking people to believe in something. Actually, I saw the bottom billboard for our local United Methodist Churches a few weeks ago and was tempted to blog about it then. My initial reaction was “that’s so weak.” As a Christian, my beliefs are based on something more than wishes. My beliefs are based on facts: historical truth and present reality. A wish is something more… fanciful. Shallow. Unfulfilled. That doesn’t sound like a belief I want to have.
If this billboard where true, I could make a wish a million dollars would fall from the sky. But would I believe in it coming true? Not likely, because there is not basis of fact to support it.
I do though have to give some credit to the second sign: it seems people find it easier to wish than to believe. But wishing upon a star does not meet the heart’s need to believe in something real.

Ironically, I think the Sea World advertisement has a more correct message for Christianity. Jesus invites us to come to Him (as He comes to us), experience His reality, and believe in Him. A wish is not generally based on a personal experience; a belief is.
Perhaps only in a city that makes billions on selling the idea of fanciful wishes would you find two such contrasting messages back-to-back.