By Ralphine Major

Her words still echo in my mind.  It was almost Christmas when I first heard them.  As we were leaving church, I saw her.  She took my hand and looked me in the eye.  Her eyes are always so kind.  “May you have moments of peace and splashes of joy!” she said.

The pace of March and April seem to have escalated this year as if to make up for the standstill with  February’s snow and ice.  A hectic schedule recently brought her words to mind again, causing me to  search for those “moments of peace and splashes of joy” every day.

I found them in a red cardinal sitting on a snow-covered tree limb.  I found them in Christmas wreaths on the doors of a church, beckoning all to enter.  I found them in children’s laughter and in a fluttering butterfly.  I found them in Easter’s yellow blooms and in flowering dogwoods now tucked away till next year.  I found them in the sound of birds singing very early on a spring morning.  I found them in the hugs from “old” friends and in the smiles of new ones.  I found them in a drive through upper East Tennessee where mile after mile unfolded bursts of green meadows and rolling hills dotted with cattle.  A backdrop of majestic mountain peaks pointed toward a crisp blue sky.  I found them in celebrations with family and friends for birthdays, for an anniversary, and for the greatest of all celebrations—the Resurrection of our Saviour.

Moments of peace.  Splashes of joy.  I found them.  In your daily walk, may you find them, too.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 26:3 (KJV).