Friday the 13th - Your LUCKY Day

Many people think a "Friday the 13th" is an "unlucky" day. Personally, I don't believe in "luck." And I know at least one of our girls is pretty happy with Friday the 13th - because that's the day she got married!

There will only be three "Friday the 13th's" this year. Tomorrow is the second one. And we're going to make it your "LUCKY" day. Because, starting tomorrow (Friday, April 13), you can book any available night at Smoky Mountain Tower or All Decked Out for the rest of April and most of May (up through Thursday, May 24) at a 13% discount. That works out to a savings of $21.84 per night (including tax). So your final price is only $146.16 per night, including tax. Remember, we don't charge any extra fees - just our nightly rate and 12.75% tax.

We still have some great dates available - including some weekends. All other rules apply, like our two-night minimum.

To take advantage of this offer, just enter Coupon Code Friday13 when you make your reservation. But you shouldn't wait - at this price, we could sell out very quickly. Of course, you can reserve at either of our Web sites:

• Smoky Mountain Tower - www.SmokyMountainTower.com
• All Decked Out - www.SmokiesRentDirect.com/All-Decked-Out
  

As always, if you have any questions, just write to Marcia@SmokiesRentDirect.com. When you write, ask her which of our daughters got married on Friday the 13th! Or, if you're reading this on Facebook, take a guess in response to this message. We'll divulge the answer in a later post.

It's Spring - especially today!

This is another "It's Spring" post. And it's a little different.

Spring is a time of renewal. Those seeds that fell into the ground last fall are now starting to sprout. You could even call it "resurrection." Of course, today is Easter Sunday - the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, in our Sunday School, "Jim" read what he called his "favorite Easter poem." It's written by John Updike - the best-selling author who died about three years ago.

I don't know anything about Mr. Updike's theology. I don't know if he ever trusted in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, like I have. But I think he has a lot to say in his poem, titled "Seven Stanzas at Easter." He wrote the poem in 1964, but its message is more true today than ever before.

Here's the poem - what do you think about it?

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that–pierced–died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.