Resurrection Sunday

Resurrection Sunday!

Easter. Christ's sacrifice, His death, and His resurrection. When I think on all that He has done for me, I am moved to tears and humbled each Easter as I reflect. I struggle with eloquently expressing myself in words, written or spoken, so I have written down what others have said that express what I feel and think so beautifully… 

"The gospels do not explain the Resurrection; the Resurrection explains the Gospels. Belief in the Resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith, it is the Christian faith." -John S. Whale

"This is the week Jesus rose to his task and split history in two. This is the week he rode on a donkey, cried in the garden, suffered on the cross, rose into glory. This is the week that sinful, broken humans were granted a pardon, justified to perfection and set free. It is too miraculous for words. Songs and sermons fail us; we huddle at the cross, overwhelmed by the punishment that brought us peace." -Jen Hatmaker

I am thankful for His grace. His love. His mercy. And the gift of life through Jesus Christ. I am forever changed by Him!

Easter Sunday is different for pastor families. It's busy. It's chaotic. It's hard to not get lost in the chaos and sit and be still and worship Him with my undivided heart. But this Sunday, when I finally stumbled into the second service during the 2nd to last song, I sat alone in the back and looked out on the sea of people and tears welled up.  I thought back to our first Easter here, when we sat in our basement with 7 others and a guitar. When I looked out, I was overwhelmed and began to praise Him and thank Him for allowing little 'ole me to be a part of His work. Broken, sinful, messy-hearted, me. That is what grace is.

Grace = the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

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It is a marathon every Sunday morning to get my lovely children dressed, fed, and out the door by 8:45am all by myself. I don't know why, but Sunday mornings can be traumatic, eventful, sometimes weeping and gnashing of teeth occur.

This Easter Sunday, the weather was beautiful. For the first time ever since we have lived here, it was warm enough to wear short sleeves!! I desperately wanted a picture of my little darlings before we left because I knew there would be messy hair and donut splatter on their clothes when we returned home. (And don't judge… I did not notice Josiah's grass stain on his jeans until he was buckled in the car and we were already late!! He grabbed the jeans out of the dirty clothes hamper. Nice son. I tried to get them to look presentable and it almost happened) :)

99.8% of the pictures looked like these… but then out of about 30, there was a gem of a picture!! 

After church I bribed everyone to sit and take a family picture! I love it, it's our life and they are so precious to me!! 

(My tripod and remote shutter for my camera are my favorite pieces of photog equipment since there is no one else to take our pictures!)

Then we hid eggs and for the first time the kids had an egg hunt in the backyard. They loved it. Leah enjoyed finding one egg, opening it, dumping the candy out, and eating immediately. This girl is serious about her food.

We spent the rest of the day recovering from the morning, and Justin and Josiah were sick with upper respiratory crud, so they needed to rest. We had breakfast for dinner, played outside with the neighbors, and went to bed early. As Paul likes to say, "This was the best day EVER!"