We are so blessed to have friends like you who care about us, pray for us and show us so much love. Cora received many cards and special notes on her birthday which made her day so much brighter. We are very blessed to have so many special friends that have blessed us and bore our burdens with us through these many years of Cora’s illness. One special friend is a woman named Dee. The Lord used Cora in a special way to lead her to the Lord back in the 1980s, and now she has grown into a wonderful, mature Christian. She recently sent a note to Cora to encourage her which is actually a wonderful Easter message, so we thought we would share some of her thoughts with you.

I'm amazed how much God loves flowers. Some look as though He hand painted them. I know Cora is a beautiful flower in God's Garden! I know her roots go deep into the soil of His spirit and it is there that she receives her nourishment for her soul. To everything there is a season, even flowers. When they go dormant we can't even see them but their roots are in the soil busy at work, receiving from the soil what they need for the next season. God will even put it on the heart of others to bring in top soil to replenish what the flower used up this season and to check to see that harmful bugs aren't taking up residence, because He knows a weakened plant can't stand up and fight as well as a well nourished one. Imagine - we can throw smelly manure on the plant and the most beautiful "fragrant" flowers emerge, so wonderful that even perfume companies try to copy the fragrance.

I grow lily's which are very fragrant. If you bring one inside the aroma fills the room so intensely you sometimes have to remove it and take it to another room. Before you know it one little flower has scented the whole house! Many times the neighbors tell me they can smell my lilies the minute they turn the corner! To look in the garden where they bloom there's no sign that anything grows there now. Then one day in April I'll see the ground start to part and once again I have the joy of knowing the lilies will rise again and bless not only me but the whole neighborhood! And each year the blooms increase. Just think of all that was going on under ground where no one could see with the naked eye what was taking place. Only God!!!!

And here's Cora, a flower in God's garden going through the many seasons it takes to make a beautiful flower with roots that go into the depth of the soil of God and soak up living water. God puts her on the heart of many to tend to her needs, whether physical or to pray. Imagine the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the husbandman of His garden, would find me worthy and hand me a list and entrust me with her needs to be prayed for. With Cora in God's garden He knows that, as her needs are met, the fragrance of Jesus will emerge and will increase with each passing season and bless many. I heard a saying that is so true - "The best fertilizer is the gardeners shadow". And here's Cora, "In the shadow of His wings" until she once again emerges into the next season He has for her.

We would like to leave you with a song Cora used to sing with her guitar back in the 1970s. It’s message is certainly that of this Easter season.

Oh I marvel at the wisdom of my God,

Yes I marvel at the wisdom of my God

When I see the little lily pushing up the mighty sod

Then I marvel at the wisdom of my God.

When they crucified the Father’s only Son

And they laid Him in the tomb they thought they’d won

But just like the little lily He pushed back the mighty sod

And I marvel at the wisdom of my God.

When the Father’s new creation I did see

I said, “Lord, did you do this for me?

For I am the little lily pushing back the mighty sod

And I marvel at the wisdom of my God.”