Here comes April!

And it starts Thursday with April Fool’s Day. Personally, I think people who can think up those pranks have too much idle time on their hands. Just sayin’.

April 4 is Easter, the annual Christian celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Easter is early this year. It has fallen as early as March 22 though and as late as April 25.

The other big day for which April is known is April 15, tax day. Let’s just skip right on past that one.

April means good things like spring rain and blooming flowers, especially bluebonnets. If you have a few days for a road trip, check out the Bluebonnet Festivals.

Burnet, TX holds a Bluebonnet Festival the second weekend in April. The Texas legislature officially recognizes the city of Burnet as the “Bluebonnet Capital of Texas” and the tow advertises yearly attendance of 30,000 people.

Chappell Hill has its Bluebonnet Festival on the same weekend and advertises attendance of 25,000. Now you know where everyone is going to be!

Ennis has hosted a Bluebonnet Festival for over 60 years on the third weekend in April. Their Garden Club sponsors maps featuring 40 miles of bluebonnet trails.

That’s proof Texans love bluebonnets. If you go, let us hear about your trip!

On to what’s going on ‘round our town.

He did it again! Another notch on Sam Bennett’s championship belt. Bennett won Mississippi State’s Old Waverly Collegiate Championship last Sunday and now it’s on to San Antonio and the Valero Texas Open. We’ll keep you posted. Sam is the son of very proud parents Stacy and Dr. Mark Bennett.

Faith Farris did it again, too! The daughter of Tracy and Mitch Farris just won the Girls Cutting Championship at the Texas High school Rodeo Association Finals, putting another notch in her belt of championships. I don’t think she’s through winning those championships, either.

It’s roping time again at Crossroads Cowboy Church starting next Thursday and you ropers can start entering at 6:30 p.m. Anyone can participate. The rest of us need to be there by 7:00 p.m. to watch some exciting runs. There are some stands, but the seating is small so you might want to bring your lawn chairs.

This is a community event and, to continue holding the ropings, help is needed. A lot of help is needed. Water troughs must be kept full, trash picked up, trash cans emptied, grounds need prepping and the list goes on and on.

You don’t need to know one thing about roping. All you need is a desire to help, a desire to keep our community having ropings and enjoy people. It’s also a good opportunity for kids of all ages to learn about helping, so sign up and bring yours. If you can help, please call Joey Frederick at 281-808-2443 or David Hammit at 936- 348-1810.

The Madisonville Cemetery annual membership meeting is Saturday April 10 at 11 a.m. It will be held near the Madisonville Cemetery Information Center unless the weather crumbles. Then, the meeting will move to the Kimbro Center.

By the way, the Cemetery Association is a 501c organization, so your donations are tax deductible and they need plenty of them to pay for the mowing and cleaning and needed improvements.

Present board members are Clark Osborne, president, Ola Stiver, vice president, Duane Standley, treasurer, Cynthia Walker, secretary and board members Dawn Knight, Candy Bennett, Sylvia Dean, and Brent Viator.

Then, what is better than a good steak and a good speaker? You can have both Saturday, April 24, at the upcoming annual Madison County Reagan Dinner. In the comfort of the MCSA Climate controlled pavilion.

Jason Chaffetz, former U. S. Congressman and Fox News Contributor will speak and Leona General Store will serve those steaks. Social hour kicks off at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 6:30 p.m.

Now, though, is the time to make your reservations. Deadline for them is next Wednesday, April 7. General reservations are $60 while you can attend the 5:00 p.m. VIP Meet & Greet for $75.00.

On our birthday list: belated happy birthday to Wayne Gray Jr., whose birthday was March 30. April 1 birthdays are Richard Gilbreth, Paula Gilbert, Kathy Harris and Tina Barrett while Courtney Hendrick, Denise Drake and Carolyn Bailey blow out their candles Friday. Kathy Edwards, John Henry, Barbara Sisk and Chuck Kelly wind out this week’s list with their birthday April 4.

And finally, I have a story to tell, a true story for me: I hope the same for you. It’s the story of Easter. Easter’s coming, coming this Sunday.

Really, the countdown to Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ started when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey over 2,000 years ago last Sunday. Excited to see Jesus, the people shouted with joy and lined the path with their coats and palm leaves.

In a short five days, many of those same people shouted, “Kill him”.

It’s easy to incite a mob, though. It takes only a few, forcefully shouting and pushing an idea. Before long some will join them to gain attention, a few because it is exciting and some because they bought that idea, never mind a little fact-checking. We see the same happening today. Back then, though, Jesus Christ was the target. Today, Christianity is.

Momentum grew that week when Jesus saw money changers and dove-selling vendors abusing God’s House of Worship. With righteous indignation, he threw them out.

Of course they didn’t like that. The rulers had already decided Jesus needed to die and this was icing on the cake. Even Jesus’s disciple Judas Iscariot offered to help them, for a little bit of money that is.

Thursday was the last supper and lesson time. Jesus knelt before each disciple and washed his dusty, dirty, smelly feet, demonstrating servitude, caring for one another and humility. Unfortunately, today it seems like we are more of a me-me society, to heck with servitude, carrying and humility.

So Friday, they killed him. He died at 3 p.m., and the world immediately went dark. Wonder what people thought? Wonder what they thought when the Temple curtain tore from its top to the ground? Wonder what they thought when the whole earth shook?

Three days later, wonder what they thought when Jesus rose from his tomb and walked among them?

These days we call that day Easter. Easter’s coming this Sunday.