Easter is Hope

Easter this year was overshadowed by the lack of the ability to gather believers together to celebrate Resurrection Sunday due to shelter in place.  All celebrations happened in separate houses, in multiple ways, but all who celebrated marked the rising of our Lord and Savior with grateful hearts.  The ironic thing was, the churches may have been shut down, but essentially they divided as homes became places of worship. 

Church isn't about a building, it's about the people.  And since God is omnipresent, no one celebrated without Him.  Easter is all about hope because Easter made the grave a garden,  Seeds are not planted to die, but to rise in glory--and that's just what Jesus did.  God took the worst thing that could have happened (death) and turned it into the best thing that could have happened--because of Jesus' death and resurrection, we can, in faith, have eternal life.  Now that is certainly something to celebrate! And so we did. 

Earlier in the week, the kids and I did an art project on our big kitchen window.  It took all day, but it was fun and we were all so thrilled with the results.  It was a great backdrop for our Easter remembrance.

We watched movies that remineded us of the Word and the Hope we have in Christ (Risen and the classic Ten Commandments).  We had an Easter egg hunt (despite the rain) to help us collect Resurrection eggs and retell the bible story of Jesus' death and rising. 

We had a great fish dinner and enjoyed our Easter baskets which included a new Kerusso shirt for each of us.  Kerusso makes wonderfully clever shirts that help to spread the gospel just by wearing the shirt in public--so much fun! 

That night, the day time storms turned into dangerous weather and for the first time, our family took shelter for threat of tornadoes.  The kids were able to hunker down in the teen bedroom and go back to sleep even though the sirens went off multiple times.  John and I got little sleep, but we were safe.  I am thankful for basements--even unfinished ones. 

We did end up with a good list of ways to make our environment safer and easier to use for dangerous weather.  The high winds did a little damage in our yard but all things considered, it could have been far worse.  We were grateful.  So much to be grateful for.  So much to have hope for.  Because of Easter there is always hope.  Praise the Lord!