Easter Sunday in Revue

He is Risen!! Yes! He is risen indeed!

 Easter Sunday Night: I may not finish this tonight as it is already getting close to my bedtime, and I am more than ready for it! It's been a busy day and weekend, and my body just "ain't what she used to be" !    But it's all good. I'll start with today and work backwards.  

First off, that wooden "open tomb" with the cross behind it in the picture above was built by our son Benton, and presented to the Pastor this morning in church.  The little "stone" is separate, and can be moved to cover the open tomb, and then "rolled away" to show the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning.   He also gave us one, and here it is with the stone covering the tomb:

And then without it...  I love it!  He also made several and sold them at the Farm Market this past weekend. I told him he needs to make some more for next Easter and put them on his Etsy website! He said he would. It was just a kind of last minute idea this year and he didn't have time to make more ahead of time.  I hope he doesn't forget!

Here is the Cantata, "It is Finished", that our choir worked on for so long and finally presented Easter morning .  This was pre-recorded at our rehearsal earlier in the week, but I think our performance today was even better than this as best I could tell. It is a powerful message in song and narration.  If you feel like listening, I hope you will be blessed by the message even if the messengers are not always perfect.

Our service was very special. It was so wonderful to see so many people there to worship the Lord.  We rejoiced that our former pianist was finally able to come back to church after suffering a stroke several months ago. She is no longer able to play the piano and we truly miss her, but today she came and sang a solo (with some help on the chorus from a couple of ladies) "He Could Have Called Ten Thousand Angels", and her voice was even stronger than I ever remember it being before, so that was truly a blessing and a miracle!  Singing this song has been a tradition for the past several years, so it was so wonderful that she was able to sing it once again. (I'm sorry I don't have a picture to share of that).

And speaking of miracles, this precious couple was celebrating their 20th anniversary, and that is a miracle because a couple of years ago this dear woman was given only 4 months to live.  But GOD.  God had other plans. She has gone through a lot of ups and downs over the past couple of years with chemo treatments and some other setbacks, but we are trusting that she is actually on a very positive upswing now and is much closer to being victorious over this disease than ever before. She and her husband are truly celebrating that God has given them these 20 years together, and they look forward to many more years together, the good Lord willing.

And one other very special moment. This couple came forward to be baptized. Our church follows the tradition of sprinkling for baptism, however if a person wishes to be immersed that could certainly be arranged as well. We just don't have a facility for it here. We have served in churches of either tradition, and to me, the most important thing is to come forward in faith, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, and testifying to your faith in Christ for salvation as a witness to others of your faith. That is what Christ has asked us to do, and we are very thankful for this dear couple who wanted to do just that on Easter Sunday. Praise the Lord!

So our Easter service was filled with much joy and blessings and thankfulness for what God has done for us.  

Christ is Risen!! He is risen indeed!

After church our kids came over to our house for dinner.  Thankfully Rose baked the ham, and I had prepared the potato salad, deviled eggs ahead of time, and we just had to mix up the tossed salad, put the Hawaiian Rolls in the oven, and oh, yes, we also "threw together" a blueberry cobbler and put that in the oven to bake while we were eating our dinner.  It was a simple recipe using a white cake mix and one stick of butter and 4 cups of fresh blueberries, sprinkled with some cinnamon and sugar on top.  It turned out great, but I wasn't able to eat any until much later...and even Benton and Rose and Scott each took theirs home with them because we were too full from dinnner to eat it then.

Here are some photos from our day:

Our family!  I am holding a little stuffed lamb that Benton and Rose put in my Easter basket. No, it's not a kitten...we're still waiting for that event to happen!

I realize this looks a bit inelegant, but that's my plate.  We used our good wedding china, which only gets used for special events.  I told Scott while we were washing the dishes together that these plates are almost 56 years old, and they still look like new! It's amazing they've survived all our moves over the years...but that's because I always did the packing!  The one time we had movers come and pack our dishes I had several pieces get broken...so never again!

So after dinner we had the great Easter basket hunt...and true to form, Rose was the first to find her basket! She seems to have "radar" when it comes to finding her basket, from the very first Easter she spent with us when she and Benton were just dating and it was her first time even visiting our house...she was able to home in on where her basket was before anyone else! She's an amazing gal in so many ways, and I thank God for sending her to our family every day!!

Next Scott found his basket...

Being the big kid that he is, he wanted to show off what is in there...LOL.

And last but not least, Benton found his basket:

But the fun was not over. Unbeknownst to us, Benton and Rose brought baskets for John and I too, and we had to find ours...

It was all great fun and a family tradition that goes back to my childhood. I'm happy that our big "kids" have never outgrown their excitement over hunting for their Easter baskets.  When you get too old to do fun things with your family, you're just too old. So there!

Outside, I was happy to see the amaryllis plant blooming with great joy for Easter! Never mind the weeds...

And "Trumpet" came by with his parents to wish us a Happy Easter and see if we had any treats for them. Because it was Easter I did relent and threw them some bird seeds, and they were all quite appreciative.

Sunshine still loves to perch himself up on the porch railing beside the American Flag. He's very patriotic I guess! LOL.

While Blackie Sue tends to like to hide herself on the shelf of the little table on the porch. I've noticed they do this when that other black and white tuxedo male cat comes around. He tries to come and eat their food and they run and hide. He's a bully, and I think most probably the father of  Blackie Sue's kittens, but time will tell...

Well, here it is Monday morning, and I need to get this posted and move on. I truly hope you and yours had a blessed and wonderful Easter Sunday with your loved ones or church family.  It is truly a time to celebrate our Risen Lord and the hope of eternal life He has given us.  

Happy Easter Monday!!