Easter

Easter morning.  Cool spring breezes move through the morning air, the birds celebrate the advent of spring with their songs, and the flowers boast in their vibrant colors as they welcome the day.  I love Easter; as a Christian I am one of the Easter people.  Easter means the Resurrection of Jesus, preached about by all good pastors each year on this special morning.  It means church and dressier clothes and special music and together time with some of our family and maybe a special meal.

This year we were blessed to celebrate it with Emily and Molly and their wonderful parents, so Easter also meant granddaughters in pretty pastel dresses, lacy topped socks, shiny shoes and special hairbows.  Fresh innocent faces and hugs that make my heart sing.   In the morning before church we open their Easter baskets with plastic eggs holding candy and coins.  I read the Easter Story aloud as we sample candy for a pre-breakfast snack.

We drive to their church, the girls contentedly in the back seat of our car while their parents follow behind.  Seated in a pew in the center of the balcony I take in the gorgeous view.  My husband and daughter are on one side of me and my granddaughter is on the other, wearing the charm bracelet I’ve begun for her.  Magnificent music swells from the orchestra, with full choir and pipe organ set against lovely majestic stained glass windows.  What heavenly moments, beginning with Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee, then a good sermon about the evidence of the Resurrection as it was displayed in the lives of the disciples, and ending with the Halleluiah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.   Absolute bliss.   Just when I think my heart can’t take any more or it will burst, I hear my precious Emily’s sweet 5 year old voice beside me singing the “halleluiahs.  I feel as if I am already in heaven.  What better evidence of a Universe-Creator God, the Highest Power, than through music that originates in the hearts of men and which cannot help but come out to praise You!

From empty plastic eggs to the empty tomb, we also offer our praise to you Father. 

Alleluia!  He is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!