Easter 2012

In all the universe we have no place.
Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?
Lord Jesus, by Thy Scars, we claim Thy grace.

We had a beautiful Easter this year; it was quiet and rainy – a gentle day of remembering hope and Christ’s victory.

Sweet, sleepy Nate.  He had passed out in the car on our way home.  Too much excitement!  Don’t worry – he got in on the action later!

We had such fun preparing for Easter this year.  As Abi gets older, it is such a blessing (and often times conviction to me) on being intentional in my heart to prepare.  Discussing Holy Week with a 3 1/2 year old really showed me the mystery and awe that the Easter story contains.  It was such a treat and humbling!

Here he is!  Good morning, little Nate.

Abi’s little “Jesus is alive today!” just brought smiles to our faces – in addition to the true reason we have hope…abi also hoped for lots of yummy treats to enjoy – she was not disappointed.  However, Donald & I may have set ourselves up for failure in future years…I guess we keep going up on the silly?  We hid 65 eggs for a 3 1/2 year old (who really got it) and a 1 year old (who just thought it was funny to find a silly plastic thing and throw it on the ground!).  Next year, 100 eggs??  BUT, I must admit – my face was a big bundle of smiles and laughing the whole time we were hiding them!

 

Everyone knows my heart on this…food makes a day extra special to me.  I don’t know what it is; but I am so affected by food!  I remember moments with food, it adds to my joy…oh, and I like to eat it.  A lot.

And then the rain came…but we loved it!  We rested, enjoyed the fun treats in Easter baskets, and watched some Masters.  Happy Day – especially for the guys.

But the rain stopped!  And one of my favorite memories of late…out to the boat we went for Nate’s maiden voyage!

*Silly, but we call the canoe, the boat :)

It was so quiet and peaceful on the lake.  Right after a rainstorm is one of my favorite times to be at the lake.  The animals are super active…so minus the trash that was in abundance b/c of the storm…all was beautiful.  But, even the trash ministered to us (weird statement) – there was such evidence of how we muck this life, creation up sometimes – made the beauty of Easter hit me in another way that day.

I just think our captain is so handsome…

And our little Nate…SCREAMED at the beginning for a good 5 minutes, we definitely thought that we’d have to call our excursion early.  But by the end…he was SCREAMING that we wouldn’t let him get his whole arm in the water (remember the nasty trash?!).  And the end of the day – the boy’s a fan of the lake.  What a Wallace.

We pray that your Easter, the week prior, and this past week have been a wonderful encouragement to you!

The other gods were strong; but Thou wast weak;
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

Parts of a poem by Edward Shillito (1872-1948), a Free Church minister in England during World War I