it's like independence day

Easter, 2015.  We colored eggs & threw some chocolate & jelly beans in baskets. (Really, because that decorative grass stuff? Just no. The kids requested its banishment several years ago because it never leaves.  Smart kids.)

I really do love that the big boys joined in of their own free will. Seeing the kids doing things together makes the whole egg coloring thing worth it.

Easter was very reflective for me this year.  I even talked to Joe about it before church.  And then we get to church, & the sermon was in that same place of reflection.  It's so easy to go through the motions of these holidays without really feeling the significance of what it meant for Jesus to take my place on that cross and to rise again.  As I have been rolling it around in my mind and heart, the word that keeps coming to mind is "freedom".  Not only did Jesus' death free me from my sins, but His life and death have given me the freedom to live life beyond just surviving it.  I am free to love, hope, and dream, even in all my imperfections.  I am free to live in a way that doesn't look like the American dream, but in a way that brings joy that the American dream can never supply. I am free to question, to wrestle, to stumble...all the while seeking Jesus in me and in you.  

It's like Independence Day from sin, death, indifference, conformity, and the measuring sticks of this world.  We are free to create communities of grace, love, forgiveness, generosity, compassion, and hope with the unique passions God has instilled within each of us.

That's it...I think next Easter, we need fireworks.  Brilliant explosions of light in the sky on Easter seem way more appropriate than chocolate bunnies.  Who's in? 

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.  ~Galatians 5:1

Christ is Risen...He is Risen, Indeed!!