Why Easter is so Epic.

I love Easter.
I love it SO much - like a million times more than Christmas much.

Easter books and centerpiece...that got loads of "loving on" this year.
A few of the figurines are missing their hands.  Jesus' arm got super glued back on.
It's all good.

Because Easter is the promise!
Easter is the day that sin and pain and death were conquered.
It's the day that Jesus won...and the day where the whole world knows it!

We know the end of the Story...
It's where Satan is defeated...and it's the promise that ONE day...maybe not Today...and maybe not Tomorrow...but One day...the pain of this life, and the tears of this world will be forever exchanged for an Eternity of Forevers...where sadness won't even be a memory.

We did a sweet kid's devotional called the "Messiah Mystery" in the days leading up to Easter.

If we didn't have Easter...
Well...if we didn't have Easter than this whole life of living would be pointless, in the first place.
Seriously....what is the point of all of this if it isn't about So. Much. More....

This world is not our Home.
The God of Heaven - He came down!  He took on human skin...
And He bled and He died for you and for me.
And He is what makes this life worth living.
He is what this life is all about.

"Resurrection Rolls" with the boys.
I love food with a lesson.
Tasty and teach worthy.

Not gonna' lie.  I ate four of them.
We put them in muffin pans this year...and the "tomb" was actually empty when we bit into them.
First time for everything!

And in the meantime, we watch and we wait.
We groan and we yearn.
We wait with eager expectation, and we watch for Him to show up.
The God of the resurrection heals.  He restores and He redeems...
He loves us where we are.  He loves us no matter what.
And He came down to make us new.

Saturday morning. We celebrated early because Sunday is cray-cray.
In lieu of baskets, I did sand pails...in hopes of the promise of Summer one day.

And Easter is the promise of ALL of that wrapped up into a day of Hope and of Joy.
THAT'S why I love it so much.
I love the reminder.
I love the promise.

Cake.
And we know it's not about the Bunny.

On Sunday, Pastor Kirk said:  "Easter isn't about bad people becoming good.  It's about dead people becoming ALIVE!"

THIS is what I want my kids to know and believe in their deepest souls.
We have fun - we have SO much fun on Easter finding jelly beans, eating fun food, and doing special things.  But, it's not about the bunny....and they know that.

It's still fun to play.
Even though my oldest thought they were Monkeys.

Our church had five Easter services over the course of the weekend.
Over 1,200 people walked through our doors, and over 100 people raised their hands to say:  "I want more.  I know there is more.  And I want this Jesus that you all are so in love with!"

Oh.  My.  Goodness...
This was amazing.
As Jesse would say:  "This is my jam."
This is what I want to be all about...

Sweet and Precious.  Like my boy.
Who doesn't like to be kissed anymore...but who I can't HELP but muckle onto once in awhile.

And so Easter this year was sweet and it was beautiful.
It was fun and it was exhausting.
It was family and it was lots of jelly beans.
It was Uncles and cousins who loved on my kids, and it was meeting new friends in the process.

"Uncle Shawn lets me play with his phone.  I have him wrapped."

Easter was church with loved ones serving hundreds and hundreds of donuts and greeting hundreds and hundreds of people - some who were SO happy to walk through the doors of our church, and some who looked like deer caught in the headlights of a car....scared, unsure, wanting to be anywhere but THERE...and it was my job to just love on them and let them know that this was EXACTLY where they were supposed to be -- right smack dab in the middle of the lot with all of the rest of us messed up broken people...

...In need of a Savior.
...In need of love.  Of healing.  Of hope.
...In need of the Resurrection.

Because He never came to make bad people good.
He came to make all of us dead people ALIVE.

This.
This is why Easter is so Epic.