What a weekend we had! It was filled with egg dyeing, visiting with my parents, celebrating at church, egg hunting, and general fun. It’s no secret that I’m striving to be more intentional this year, and that includes the way we celebrate holidays. More than anything, I want Micah to know that Easter is about more than a fictional bunny that delivers candy in the middle of the night. It’s about more than new clothes and egg hunts and yummy food. It’s about a risen Savior.
That changes the way we approach a lot of things in our home. For one thing, the Easter bunny doesn’t know our address. Micah still received a basket of small gifts, but it came from her daddy and me. We still dyed Easter eggs because we can use them as object lessons for the new life we have in Christ, and yesterday afternoon, Micah hunted plastic eggs in the yard because empty Easter eggs are a great way to convey the message of an empty tomb. We’re trying to be thoughtful about the traditions we practice and honor in our home. For us, it’s worth it to sacrifice the Easter bunny because it allows the cross and subsequent empty tomb to be the center of our Easter reflections.
At any rate, the way we celebrate Easter may be a little different than most American families, but it works for us. Here are some images from the weekend.
Egg dyeing with Micah was a lot of fun. She was patient and interested in the process, and she even “dyed” her own {plastic} egg while I took care of the real eggs.
Since my parents were here to visit, we had someone to take our picture yesterday afternoon after church. Yay for a family portrait!
Micah enjoyed hunting eggs for a little while, but she soon lost interest and preferred hanging out with her Nana and Grampa, who took her home with them yesterday afternoon. It’s a quiet house around here without my little spitfire, but that also means that I have a little uninterrupted time to do a bit more writing and designing.
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend! How did you celebrate??
Until next time, grace and peace.
Easter is such a fabulous time of celebration for believers, and there’s nothing like a good Easter service at church to make you want to jump for joy. It is, hands down, my favorite church service of the entire year. Don’t get me wrong, I love the pageantry and drama of Christmas, but the joy and wonder of the resurrection simply can’t be topped.
This morning in church, we sang songs of Jesus’ life and death, his burial and his resurrection. The place seemed to be vibrating with the glory of our risen Savior. We have so much to celebrate, and believe me, there was some celebration going on.
On Friday, I mentioned that it was in his death that we see Jesus’ humanity most fully, but it is in the resurrection that we see his divinity most clearly. Only God could raise himself up from the dead. He is worthy of all honor, glory, and praise, and I pray that you had a chance to worship Him this morning.
As I have spent the weekend reflecting on the events of Easter, these words from Frederick Buechner seem particularly fitting.
“The symbol of Easter is the empty tomb. You can’t depict or domesticate emptiness. You can’t make it into pageants and string it with lights. It doesn’t move people to give presents to each other or sing old songs. It ebbs and flows all around us, the Eastertide. Even the great choruses of Handel’s Messiah sound a little like a handful of crickets chirping under the moon.
He rose. A few saw him briefly and talked to him. If it is true, there is nothing left to say. If it is not true, there is nothing left to say. For believers and unbelievers both, life has never been the same again. For some, neither has death. What is left now is the emptiness. There are those who, like Magdalen, will never stop searching it till they find his face.”
Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter’s Dictionary
May you never stop searching the emptiness.
Until next time, grace and peace.
It’s a contradiction, really, to speak of Good Friday as good. It is, after all, the day that Jesus died, and we don’t generally think of death as a good thing. When’s the last time you heard someone jumping for joy after a loved one died? Probably never. When someone dies, our first thoughts aren’t usually, “Good! I’m so glad!”
Sometimes I think we Christians brush over Jesus’ death. When it comes to Easter, we sing songs about the resurrection and proclaim gladly, “Up from the Grave He Arose!” because that’s what happened. That’s the end of the story. But in order for the resurrection to be possible, the death had to occur.
Jesus had to die.
And his death was real.
There’s a story in Luke 24 about a couple of Jesus’ followers. They were headed home from Jerusalem after witnessing the death of their beloved teacher, and as they walked, their grief was palpable. When a stranger on the road asked why they were so sad, they told him about Jesus, and they said, “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” Did you catch that? They said that they had hoped. Past tense. They weren’t hoping anymore because when Jesus died, their hope died with him. I’m sure that the grief was unbearable. Their leader, the one that they had trusted in and hoped in and believed in had died. And they were left alone.
God died.
How is it possible that God could die? It goes against everything that we know to be true about him. He is the immortal, unchangeable, king of all creation, all-powerful, unchanging God. And yet, in the span of a few hours one Friday morning, he laid all of that aside and died.
It is, I think, in his death, that we see how human Jesus really was. God doesn’t die. People do.
All of these things must have been swirling madly in the minds of the people who knew and loved Jesus. They would never walk or talk with him again. They wouldn’t share another meal with him or settle in to hear one of his stories. Maybe they were angry. Maybe they felt betrayed. Maybe they thought that everything they had believed in was a lie.
I don’t know everything they felt, but I know how it feels to lose someone you love. To be struck with the awful finality of their parting. To realize that you have hugged them for the last time. To say good-bye.
They had hoped that he would be their Savior.
For those three days between Friday and Sunday, they grieved. They cried. They mourned.
Because he was gone.
And he was gone because of their sin. Because of my sin. Because of your sin. His death was necessary to cancel out everything that is ugly and evil and wrong in this world. And that is exactly what he did. He canceled it all out. In that moment, finally, justice was served.
And that is why Good Friday is so good. Because on that day, God offered himself as the perfect sacrifice, the only sacrifice that would do. And it is by that sacrifice that we are healed. That we are purified. That we are able to draw near to God.
And that, sweet friends, is a good thing.
Until next time, grace and peace.
{photo credit eclatdusoleil}
I had big plans of designing a brand new Easter card for all of you this year, but time got away from me, and it just didn’t happen. But lucky for you, last year’s free Easter card from Senojal Designs is still available. Easter is a time for celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s a time of hope and renewal and all things new. This card features colorful butterflies soaring above some spring grass. I know of no better symbol of transformation than a butterfly: the caterpillar has to “die” so that the butterfly can live. Jesus had to die so that we also may live. Feel free to print the card and give it away to whomever you like.
The nitty gritty details about downloading this file: You may not accept credit for the design of this card or sell it to anyone. Senojal Designs retains the copyright. If you wish to share the digital file with others, please direct them to this post. Do not e-mail the file all over the world. Please don’t link directly to the download file – link to this post instead. Instructions for printing and cutting the card are included in the digital file. Click here to download the free printable Happy Easter card!
Enjoy! If you download the card and like it, leave me a comment to let me know. Thanks!
Until next time, grace and peace.
I love Easter. It’s really one of my favorite times of year. I love that the very season reflects the new life ushered into the world by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I also love a good craft project {even if I don’t always have time to implement it}. When I stumbled across this sweet little secret message egg project, I knew that it would be a perfect project to tackle with Micah when she gets a little older.
What better way to spread the news of an empty tomb than by tucking a little note inside a blown-out egg? You can write anything you want on the note, from the tomb is empty to hope is alive to my redeemer lives to he is risen indeed. What a precious way to send Easter greetings to family and friends.
Of course, it would be easier to send that note via a plastic egg, but it wouldn’t be nearly as cute.
For full instructions on how to make these little eggs, click through to poppytalk.
Until next time, grace and peace.
{photos by Present&Correct}
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