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Celebrating Together {Resurrection Sunday!}

I’m a day late, but for some reason Blogger wasn’t working last night, and I couldn’t log in to my blog. So, I sat in a chair drinking tea, watching the final episode of “The Bible” with Robert and the kids, and being thankful for the wonderful season of Lent and the great Resurrection Day celebrated with a crowd at church and then at my own house.
It was hard not having Kory here, though.  I have photos of my three together for every Easter since Kayla was born, but he’s missing from these since he is still in Texas visiting a couple of colleges there.  See the obvious gap in this photo?  That’s sibling love right there!
Kayla enjoyed having some of her best friends over for lunch after church and an egg hunt.
Cooper enjoyed having some of his best buddies over, too.  They disappeared after lunch, and even before dessert.  The only thing we could figure is that they headed to UMass to play basketball.  Basketball is the ONLY thing that takes priority over dessert in their minds.
 I got to totally indulge in one of my favorite things ever which is having a crowd around my dining room table for lunch after church ~ and a very special crowd at that.  We ate barbecued brisket, pork tenderloin, scalloped potatoes, green salad, fruit salad, asparagus, broccoli-bacon salad, chocolate cake, ice cream, lemon bars, and more ~ with help from friends, of course! Almost everyone stayed into the evening and the men hid eggs for the girls while the women did dishes and drank another cup of tea or coffee.  So wonderful!
Blessed to have these great ladies in my life ~ even if some of them couldn’t stay in their Easter clothes long enough to take the special Easter Sunday photos. ☺{The kids stripped almost immediately, too. Had to get their pics before unlocking the front door once home from church!}
Such a gift to celebrate the Resurrection and the end of my Lenten journey like this. Robert preached through I Corinthians 15 on Sunday ~ explaining in basic, but very important terms the necessity of the Resurrection. I kept thinking of a few things…

First ~ something I read a few days back in John Piper’s Finally Alive:

O that every believer would know the glory of what has happened to him! Do you know what God has done for and in you? You were ransomed with the imperishable blood of Christ.  You were raised with Christ from the dead to an eternally living hope. You were called from death to life like Lazarus, and you saw Christ for the Treasure that He is. You were born again.  You received Him and were saved.

It’s a truly miraculous gift, and this gift was undeserved and unearned.

Second ~ one of the hymns we sang yesterday and have been singing a lot lately:

Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
Behold Him there the risen Lamb
My perfect spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I Am
The king of glory and of grace
One with Himself, I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my savior and my God!

And third ~ the simple creed attributed to James, the brother of Jesus,  that Robert had us repeat at the end of yesterday’s service:

Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.
And this musical version of the creed that gives me chills and tears every time I listen and sing…
Thank you, Lord, for dying, for rising, and for promising to come again ~ for me.