He is Risen!

Easter is my favorite holiday and a significant one for many reasons. THE significance - Christ's death on the cross, defeat of sin, and resurrection - is why we celebrate this weekend and every day as Christians. Because He rose to life, we have life!

Growing up, my parents always made a big deal about Easter. We would wake up just before dawn every Easter morning. My mom would have hot chocolate and cozy blankets ready for all of the kids (in Missouri it is still pretty cold in April), and my dad would make a fire in the backyard and then read the story of Easter from the Bible while we watched the sun rise through the trees. After my dad passed away, my mom made a point of continuing this tradition with me and my brothers and sister ... even if that meant lighting a candle or a Dura-flame log! Our family was so blessed when my mom remarried and two new siblings and my step-dad joined in this family tradition.

Throughout my teenage years, Kent would try and come up with new illustrations to share the Gospel of Christ each Easter. One year, in an effort to explain how even a small sin makes us complete sinners, he baked a batch of brownies and told all of us kids that he had put "just a little bit" of our dog's poop in the mix, which ruined the entire batch. I tried to call his bluff by eating one of the brownies, and I am sorry to say that Kent was not lying. Another year, Kent wrote all of his sins down on a note card and covered the entire thing with ketchup, which was supposed to represent Christ's blood covering our sins. Of course, my little brothers both tried wiping the ketchup off of the note card to read what Kent had written.

All that to explain that J and I are continuing this Easter tradition of having a family sunrise service. This year we celebrated Easter with my sister and J's brother and mom. It was overcast and sprinkling out, so we had to improvise and have our sunrise service on the front porch. We read the Easter story from Trip's "Jesus Storybook Bible", and Trip decided to talk and yell throughout the entire story - I'm sure waking the neighbors! Anna and I made breakfast, we all took naps, Trip dug through his Easter basket, and then we headed to church.

A few pictures from the weekend.

On a side note ... As the mom of a 1-year-old, I was struck this year by the amount of propaganda about the Easter bunny geared toward kids. I'm not opposed to a fun Easter egg hunt, or having an Easter basket, but I was a little caught off guard at the way our society has removed Christ from Easter almost entirely. I'm not sure why this has happened to the most important Christian holiday, and it doesn't seem to affect other religions' important holidays. We don't have a made up Ramadan Rabbit, or a Kwanzaa Bear. This has all made me so thankful that my parents have placed the emphasis of Easter rightly on Christ, and I am challenged to continue that legacy with my own children.