Easter Lessons

Happy Easter! He is Risen, Alleluia!! He is Risen indeed!

On Holy Saturday we made a late and last minute decision to take all of the children to the Easter Vigil starting at 8:00pm! Aaron’s comment while weighing the pros and cons, deciding whether to go to the Vigil or on Easter morning, “Well it may not be our best parenting move.” We went anyway! I was thinking the smaller ones would fall asleep pretty quickly with the Church being dark for a good portion of the time. They proved me wrong.

Briella grabbed a quick 15 minute power nap on the way there and was an energizer bunny for the entire 2 hours and 45 minutes! The kids were so excited to finally say the “A word”, which was in part why they were eager to go to the Vigil. (That and we promised ice cream to celebrate when we got home.) When the lights came on and everyone was singing, big smiles filled their faces and Briella from the back of Church yelled, “Alleluia!”

Everyone did pretty well, all things considering and made it through. Half of the kids were too tired when we made it home at 11:00pm to even want ice cream. Not sure we will go to the Vigil again next year, but who would have thought we were crazy enough to try it out this year! (Wishful thinking that everyone would sleep in, because way too much excitement for Easter, baskets, candy, etc.)

I thought I had all of the food and preparations planned out and prepped accordingly for Sunday, until things began to go wrong. I forgot to buy pecans for the pecan rolls. I was distracted and overcooked the caramel sauce for the rolls, which when baked turned into a hard chewy topping impossible to get out of your teeth. I miscounted how many eggs I needed and ended up short, with only five eggs instead of the called for eight for the sausage and hashbrown egg bake. For some reason my hard boiled eggs didn’t boil correctly and were impossible to peel, so I couldn’t make the deviled eggs I was planning on bringing to the family gathering.

Clearly, I was a little disappointed and had to try hard to fight off the feeling of discouragement. Easter is my favorite and I love waking up early to feed my crew a delicious brunch before any of the festivities begin. So when everything seemed to go wrong, I wanted a do over for the day. To reverse time and try Easter again.

Even on Easter God was trying to teach me a lesson. To show me something more. To prune me from my crutch of striving to have things perfect. To let go of worldly standards and focus on things eternal, what matters in the end. None of the food mishaps mattered to my children, they didn’t complain or mind the almost inedible rolls. Their joy remained contagious!

Pecan rolls and egg bake won’t go with me to heaven, although they sure taste good. I won’t be judged on whether everything turned out perfectly on Easter 2021, but how I lived my life. How I serve, how I love and how I respond when things don’t go my way. In there lies hope. Despite my shortcomings, weaknesses and imperfections, Christ still opened the gate of heaven for me. His grace is still being poured out and is sufficient. He is alive today, the Risen Lord, working and moving in our lives.

This will most certainly be an Easter Aaron and I look back on and laugh about. And good thing Easter is eight days, it still gives me a few more days to get a family picture in. In the words of Briella, Alleluia!!