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Easter night, millions of Americans tuned in to Jesus, this was actually several years ago when "The Bible" miniseries was on cable TV. Except this time, "A.D. - The Bible Continues" was on a major network. I was one of those millions who was watching on Easter, plunged into the world-changing events of that first Good Friday and Easter.
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We had three kids. They were all in the junior high band at different times over a seven year period of time. So I got to go to seven straight years of junior high band concerts. I enjoyed watching our kids develop musically, but I cannot say it was a memorable music experience. Fortunately, they stuck to pieces that were at their level. But what if they had attempted, say Beethoven, the musical genius.
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In our treasury of family videos we have a few moments that are considered classics. Most folks outside the family wouldn't think so, but you had to be there. The classics are usually either very touching or give us a chance to laugh very loudly at one of the five Hutchcrafts; such as the one from our Alaska trip. Our oldest son (we will call him son number one for the purpose of this illustration), was about 14, the youngest son, (we'll call him son number two) was about 12; at the age where a boy's voice isn't quite sure where it will go on the next word. You know what I mean? Now, we're filming some dog team races, and we trusted the camera to our least-technical family member - son number one. Like Father, like son. Now, son number two, being more technically oriented, was providing unsolicited coaching on video filming.
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"Frozen"! Yeah, that's a blockbuster Disney movie, but it was something else too. It was the headline for the record-busting winter of 2015 in a whole lot of the United States. Any time I heard myself starting to whimper over the long freeze, I just made myself think one thing - "Boston." We're talking a little over 100 inches of snow in just a few weeks!
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It was like 11 o'clock at night when I suddenly got this cryptic text from my son - "Please turn off your porch lights." Excuse me?
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I have no official statistics on what I'm about to say, just a personal impression. But I believe the State of Pennsylvania might be the road kill capitol of the Northeast, especially for deer population. I have seen many more dead deer by the side of the road there than any state in that region. Of course, there's a lot more of Pennsylvania, too. But I read an article about the outraged mayor of a small town in Pennsylvania. The Interstate runs through his community. This is a true story! The reason for his outrage? A paving crew was working on that road one summer, and they came upon a dead deer with much of its carcass lying on the road. Want to try to guess what they did next? They went right ahead and paved right over the deer! "Honey, I just hit a bump in the road. I think it's a deer!"
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Over the years, one of my areas of giftedness has been in the area of sleeping. Well, I mean, the Bible says you do whatever you do with all your heart, right? And that should apply to sleeping. Right? Now, I'd give our kids a time to be in, but I didn't always remain conscious that long. And they could ring the doorbell because they forgot their key, they could stomp upstairs, they could stomp over our bed, for that matter, and I would probably barely stir. Oh, but not my wife. Oh, no, no! I think there's something about the way many mothers are wired. They sleep real light - if at all - until everybody's home safe. It's a mother thing. They just can't rest until all the kids are in.
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One of the more lovable guys on TV, I think, is the weatherman named Al Roker. He's even got a book about his battle with losing weight.
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My wife and I had a very long honeymoon; I mean for lots of years. Our honeymoon was in its early years when we got some very scary news. The doctor said that my wife might have a very serious disease. She had a routine physical for her job, and the chest x-rays revealed some suspicious dark spots on her lung. We got that report on a Friday, and we had to wait until Monday to get the final results. It might have been one of the longest weekends of our lives!
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When our oldest son was little he started a hobby that really helped him pay his way through college eventually - collecting baseball cards. He was doing pretty well collecting, when he asked me to start taking him to these shows on the baseball circuit. One summer I was scheduled to speak at Ocean City, New Jersey, and he wanted to go down a day early so we could catch the last day of this huge card show. He walked into a large hall with all the money the little guy could have saved from recent chores and allowances.
