Easter Blessings

Easter is amazing to me.  I mean I LOVE Christmas...who doesn't?  How could you not?  The season is joyous, magical, festive, and just plain fun!  The reality of Easter is tough...thinking about what Christ endured - what HIS Father, our Father endured on GOOD Friday for US ME is phenomenal...absolutely phenomenal!    What Christ did on Easter Sunday for is nothing short of miraculous...I mean who else do you know that has risen from the dead?  Me....no one, just Jesus....just the son of GOD, just the Savior of the world, just MY Savior....Really??? "just"?  "just" doesn't cut it...."just" indicates "justice" and where is there justice when you consider all that Christ endured...blameless, HE who was without sin?

This Easter season while we had fun with Brady with all the parties, festivities, crafts, egg hunts, etc. I really wanted to focus on what Easter is....what this day represents.  I had a hard time with the wording...it is not pretty what our LORD suffered through...there is nothing romantic, magical, or mystical about being flogged, beaten, or crucified.  Explaining this to a 3-year-old is tough...you question yourself as to the extent of the details, the depth, how honest....but again, I don't want to romanticize it.  We had a few conversations come up as we discussed the fact that Easter was approaching. 

• Brady - "I don't want Jesus to die"
• Brady - "He came back to life?"  "When I die will I come back to life?"
• Brady - "Why did Jesus have to die?"
• Brady - "Jesus is in heaven?  I thought Jesus was in our hearts?"

Then we had a cool dialogue after Brady came home one day from preschool the week of Easter.  He told me the story of Easter.  "Mommy the bad mans killed Jesus and put a crown of thorns on his head.  This gave him a boo boo and he had circle boo boos on his hands.  They hurt him Mommy and it was very sad then they put him on a cross and he died.  The good guys rolled away the rock in front of the cave and he wasn't there, Mommy.  His friends couldn't find him because he rose from the dead....Jesus rose from the dead!"  I was so impressed by his knowledge and his retelling of what he learned from Mrs. Janey (who was thrilled to hear that he retained it and it made sense) and the toddler picture Bible that she used.  This led to great conversation in which we talked about Jesus, sin, inviting Christ into our hearts - in which he clearly stated "I have invited Jesus into my heart, Mommy" - I am not sure he is quite capable of truly understanding that yet so we will continue to have this open communication, prayer time, Church, and his Bible teaching in school, of course.  That is something only Christ will truly know.  Perhaps my prayer of Brady coming to a saving knowledge of Christ at an early age will come to be...perhaps sooner than I ever imagined. 

It is not enough to say Thank you, Lord, but without any other words - Thank you!!!