He is Risen!

This post is a little overdue, but let's face it. Jesus is always risen, not just on Easter. :)

This year, Easter had an entirely new meaning to me. I'm not convinced I can even put it into words, but God had been preparing and sobering my heart through the season of Lent, something I've never really done before. (Well, I did "lent" before and fasted from sugar with the real ultimate goal of losing weight, not honoring God through lent). Without getting into too many details, God used lent to open my eyes to some pretty gaping holes in my heart, but Easter Sunday I fully realized and was overwhelmed by the fact that Jesus is a filler for those holes. His grace is so much more than I really grasp.

For the first time, we did Resurrection Eggs with Jason this year and I LOVED it. He loved opening a new egg each night and reading the story in Benjamin's Box that corresponded. Most nights, he fell asleep clutching the egg in his hand. The last night, Matt was a little nervous because the egg is empty to symbolize Jesus' empty tomb. We got out the egg, and J opened it and looked a little perplexed. Matt started to explain to him why the egg was empty and I just lost it. We are given such a great gift in our children and it is such a privilege to get to teach them for the first time about Jesus. I don't imagine Jason understood any of what we were really saying, but when Matt said "Jesus is risen!" and J followed with "Jeezus Rizz", I got a glimpse of how we'll be able to teach him as he grows. Such a gift!!

We also died eggs with J for the first time this year, and he was enthralled! The stickers for the eggs looked way better on his belly. :)

We celebrated Easter with a beautiful and joyful church service and I got to play on the worship team. Playing on Easter is one of my favorite traditions that I've missed for a few years, I was so grateful to be a part this year. We played a song, that I have grown to love, here's a link to listen to it if you want to. I thought that maybe it wasn't very "Eastery" at first, but after meditating on the words and listening to it non-stop for about a week, I was convinced this is as Eastery as they get. :)

We had a small celebration with just my parents, since Matt's family is out of town and/or sick. We also invited a small group family over after dinner for an easter egg hunt, since their little guy is about the same age as J. They had a great time looking for eggs! Here are a few pics from the day! Happy late Easter!
 

J's friend was a daredevil on the slide!!