30.4.20

Easter

To say Easter was different this year is quite the understatement.

We were egged three times.  We egged the kids in my Sunday school class.  The kids had Easter baskets, although some of their goodies didn't arrive on time so I just put notes in their baskets.  We dressed up for church, which meant they all stayed at home and watched church online while I went to church to play and lead worship for the online service.  I set up my tripod on the back porch so we could have a family picture.

I missed having a sunrise service.  I missed planning and leading an Easter Bible story lesson for my Sunday school class.  That's always my most favorite lesson to teach each year.  I missed the Easter cantata and corporate worship celebration that we'd been planning and preparing for since January.  But for all the things that were different, there's one thing that will never change no matter what.

It is finished.

Jesus is risen.

In many ways, I feel like I'm still processing all of this.  It didn't "feel" like Easter was supposed to feel.  But it wasn't any less Easter at all.  Had I become so caught up with HOW we celebrate Easter instead of WHY?  Had I become so caught up with preparing all the THINGS that I wasn't preparing my HEART?  Had I become so caught up in CHURCH that I missed JESUS?

I've said this over and over again.  I don't want to miss it.  I don't want to miss what God is doing, what He is teaching me, what He is refining.  This time of social distancing and deliberately staying at home has created time and space that I knew I needed but wasn't able to make.  I'm not sure what it's all going to look like at the end of all this.  I only know I want to look more like Jesus!