He Is Risen, Indeed!

Easter is a holiday that doesn't get nearly enough credit.  It ought to be as big a deal as Christmas, considering the fact that we are celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the single most important event in the history of the world, the event that changed everything for humankind.

But I'm not good at sermons, so I won't write one.  I just want to reflect on my Easter experience this year.  Nothing dramatic.  Just thinking about it all. 

First came the Lord's supper service at church on Palm Sunday.  I had not thought about it at all and only remembered we were doing it when I looked at bulletin once we arrived at church.  It was a very simple service, no emotional music, no program, nothing special.  We just sang some lovely old hymns and took the Lord's supper.  So I was surprised when the tears came and they kept coming throughout most of the service.  My chest felt tight when I thought of what happened to Jesus as he hung on the cross for me.  At first I was frustrated with myself for crying, but then I felt glad. 

As someone who grew up on the mission field in a home where I was practically saturated with the word of God and teachings about Christianity, I sometimes find myself sporting a know-it-all attitude.  Heard that story, know that verse, blah blah blah.  I still believe all of it.  I've never, ever wanted to walk away from my Lord and Savior.  But sometimes I just forget.  So when I actually felt emotion and tears rolled down my face as I ate the bread and drank the juice, I was glad.  Glad that I haven't completely forgotten.  Glad that I understand, as much as my human brain can, what really happened on that day two thousand years ago.  When Patience saw me crying she patted my face and said, "Tears, Mom?"  I nodded my head as we stood to sing "The Old Rugged Cross" and held her tight, praying that someday she would understand, too.  If I accomplish nothing else in my life, if I never do anything that people will notice or acquire anything of material value, if I can just help my kids know and understand Jesus, that will be enough.  More than enough. 

Then my tears turned to laughter when Ben went to the front to help serve the grape juice and Patience was hanging off the end of the pew hollering, "Daddy!  Daddeeee!"  Sometimes the laughter mingled with tears is the sweetest.  And on that day it was.

Monday came and I sort of drifted back into routine, as most people do on Mondays.  Then my little sister texted me and asked if I was going to decorate the cross for the church for Easter Sunday.  I had totally forgotten about it.  Two years ago I decided that if Christmas gets a tree, Easter should get a cross.  Our church has a big heavy 8 foot cross that Ben built a few years ago for a prop for Day Camp.  My thought was to decorate the cross the way you decorate a Christmas tree.  Only not Christmasy, obviously.  So during the week before Easter, I put the cross up on the stage, wrapped it with white lights, draped the arms with shimmery purple fabric, and added some trailing green vines and blooming white lilies.  The top was adorned with a crown of white lilies and I clustered more of the same around the foot.  It turned out so very pretty.  A twinkling, shimmering springtime reminder of the joy of Easter morning.

I did the cross last year too, but somehow I nearly forgot this year.  Hannah reminded me that I should do it, so Patience and I went down to the church one evening and worked on it.  As I worked I wondered why I was doing it.  Probably no one even notices it, or they wonder why I bother.  Actually most people don't even know I'm the one who does it.  But as I wrapped lights and tucked lilies here and there I decided that even if no one notices, its good for me to do it.  It makes me reflect on Easter.  I offer so little as it is, and during the Easter season the least I can do is spend an hour creating something beautiful to reflect the beauty of what Jesus did.  Its good to be reminded, and sometimes, in my case, it takes doing something.

Thursday evening we went to my mom's house to celebrate Passover.  We almost didn't do it  because my mom and dad have been really busy lately.  So they settled for an abbreviated version, because Mom pointed out that something is very wrong indeed if a family is too busy to stop and think about the cross.  And thats what Passover is, a time of looking back, remembering, and celebrating.  So even though Isaac and Hannah (my younger brother and sister) had soccer practice, Mom had guests coming to the B&B the next day, Joseph (another brother) and his family were stretched pretty thin due to his recent leg injury, and Ben had a horrific day at work, including falling through the floor of the cabin and busting a water line, we all made the effort to stop.  Mom had the table looking beautiful with white linens and glowing candles, and we all sat down together to listen to Dad read some scriptures.  We didn't do the whole traditional seder plate, but we had the matza bread and a few other Jewish dishes.  I missed doing the full Passover, but I'm sure we'll pick up again next year.  If anything, not doing it made me realize how meaningful it really is and how much it does force me to stop and think.  Mom gathered all the grandkids in her lap and told them the Easter story, then she let them all hunt for a prize she had gotten them, CDs of toddler songs.  Patience and her cousins were very excited and Patience slept with her CD in bed with her that night.  She's still carrying it around saying, "Mimi, prize!"  I'm not sure she knows what a prize is.

On Saturday Ben was off work and we took Patience to the community Easter egg hunt.  The first plastic egg she picked up came open and she saw the candy inside.  She immediately became very focused.  She gets that from her daddy!  She picked up 20 eggs and won a cheesy basket full of Easter junk for getting second place.  We were so proud! 

That afternoon we took naps, then Ben, Patience and I loaded up in the truck and went fishing.  The weather was perfect.  I sat with Patience on the riverbank and watched her bury her little toes deep into the coolness of the sand.  I looked at the vivid reflection of the green trees and blue sky in the water and found myself wanting to jump in and see why the reflection somehow looks brighter and more real than the real thing.  The thought drifted through my mind that maybe thats what heaven is like.  Somehow more real than the reality we experince here.  Oh, the thinks one thinks while fishing!  Ben caught three nice little perch, and we headed home, Patiene stripped down to her diaper because she got so filthy. 

As we drove home in the cool of the evening I watched the sun set accross a green field dotted with cows.  I hung my arm out the window and felt the breeze slide through my fingers.  I noticed the clean freshness of everything, dust settling behind us, the vines creeping along the fences, the many shades of springtime green.  I breathed deep and thanked God for the millionth time that we live in such a beautiful place.

Sunday morning I was up early putting out Patience's Easter basket.  She had extra goodies, thanks to a care package from Nana in Tucson.  I looked up Keith Green's Easter Song online and had it playing on the laptop when Patience and Ben came to look at all the Easter suprises.  Peeps, chocolate eggs, fluffy stuffed animals, and a new CD for Ben.  We sipped coffee and munched biscotti while Patience played with her new toys and ate way too much candy.

Then a flurry of getting ready for church.  Patience was adorable in her yellow fluffy dress and while shoes.  Ben said she looked like a yellow marshmallow Peep.  Once he pointed that out, I saw that he was quite right.  But Peeps are cute, right?  Once we got to church we realized how much candy Patience actually ate.  She was WILD.  During the greeting time she was hanging on Ben's leg pounding her face on him.  Then she collapsed on the floor and started rolling down the aisle in a whirl of yellow and while petticoats.  We corralled her back in our pew in time for the service to start, but she seemed to have no control over her body.  She wasn't being bad at all, but she was laughing hysterically at everything and twice she flung herself around so hard she slammed her head against the back of the pew and cried.  Ben finally had to take her out.  He said it wasn't fair to let her have so much candy and then expect her to sit still.  Very true.  I hear of people putting healthy snacks in their kid's Easter eggs.  That's very...healthy.  And boring.  I mean, come on.  She gets candy like three times a year.  Let her have it on holidays.  But maybe not quite so much next time.

It was a good Easter season for us.  I wish we had practiced Lent, I wish I had done a pretty Easter cross for our house, and I wish we had done a real Passover.  But there's time to establish traditions.  Our family is still very young.  I want to establish traditions to help make the meaning of Easter very real for our kids.  But even without them, I thought about the cross a lot this week, and I'm glad.

That's about the extent of my Easter ramblings.  I realize that this wasn't well-written or even very interesting.  I just always feel that Easter deserves so much more recognition.  This is my small way of trying to make it more what it ought to be.  I wish there was something I could say to convey the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but sometimes words simply aren't enough.

But He is risen.  He is risen, indeed.  And for that I am more than thankful.