Happy Easter!
I love this time of the year. Spring brings with it the promise of new life. The days lengthen, the sun shines, the clouds pour forth rain, the buds blossom, and the birds start singing. The natural is reflective of the spiritual – new life is an ever-present reality for the Christian who lives in the fullness of the risen Jesus J
To kick off the holiday season, Kelly and I attended Evangel's presentation of the 2nd and 3rd movements of Handel's Messiah (the Easter portions). We enjoyed listening to the complex music and vocal lines. It is truly incredible to experience the result of such creative genius. Handel was one talented guy. After the concert was finished, we headed back to my apartment to continue our celebration of the Easter season...
Once Kelly and I returned, Nick joined us in an egg-dying adventure. After popping open our bag of Starburst jelly beans, we were ready to begin. If you were a fly on my kitchen wall, you would have observed a comical scene of three 20-something-year-olds trying to figure out how to hard boil eggs. Apparently, it’s not something we do terribly often. Haha. After a helpful Google search, we found directions on how to cook the “perfect hard-boiled egg.” Although we started with a dozen eggs, three of them cracked while boiling…so we had a tasty snack.
By the time our remaining 9 eggs had cooled, our color tablets were dissolved in the vinegar, and we were ready to start dying! To this day, the smell of vinegar still takes me back to my childhood when my sister and I would color eggs. We all worked around each other to get to our desired colors, and a little later we had some spectacular eggs to show for our efforts. Kelly and I often dyed eggs together as kids, but it was fun to have Nick in on it this year too. He always makes things more entertaining. For instance, check out this pic. Yes, I have the coolest brother-in-law.
Our results were awesome.
In addition to the Starburst jelly beans and dyed eggs, I have also enjoyed this week of preparation for Sunday morning. First though, time was taken to remember the horrible, awful sacrifice Jesus made for our sins. Joining some friends, I went to Evangel Temple’s Good Friday service. Throughout my college years, I was never able to attend this service because I would go home for break, but I had heard wonderful things about it. As I entered the sanctuary, the lights were dimmed. The choir and orchestra sat ready in anticipation of the evening. During the hour of reflection, we took communion, sang a hymn, and heard Scripture read. The musical portion filled the remaining time and presented the last 7 words of Jesus at the scene of the cross. We left the sanctuary in silence. The somber mood only emphasized the extreme of the joyful Sunday morning we would soon be celebrating.
I am grateful for Jesus and his exchange - my sin for reconciliation with God. May we ever praise Him. Have a blessed day J
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