It's Easter Monday Morning

It's Easter Monday Morning...the day after Easter. The day after Mary and the Disciples learned that Jesus was alive and no longer in the tomb! I was reading in the Gospels the different accounts of all that happened on Resurrection Day, and the activities of Jesus as He revealed Himself to His disciples,  and then also to the men on the Road to Emmaus, (Luke 24:13-32),

and still on that same day He came and had fish and honeycomb with the Disciples (Luke 24:33-43), and also came back especially to show Himself to Thomas, so that he would also believe and not doubt...(John 20:19-29).  Jesus was quite active on that first day!

Jesus continued to show Himself to His disciples for forty more days, teaching them more about love being the only proper motive for service (John 21:15-17),  and there were "many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." John 21:25.

And then at the end of these forty days Jesus gave them (and us) His Great Commission:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, 

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son 

and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;

and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Matthew 28:19-20

And after sharing these things with them and giving them this commandment, 

"He blessed them...

He was parted from them and carried up into heaven."

Luke 24:51

And Acts 1:9-11 tells us:

"Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up,

and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, 

behold two men stood by them in white apparel,

who also said,

"Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven,

will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."

So, here we are, the day after Christ's Resurrection, and we have work to do! We can't just keep standing here gazing up into heaven. We've been given a Great Commission to go out and share this Good News with the world, and then to prepare our hearts for His, I believe, soon return.  

I trust that you all had a blessed and pleasant Easter. Yes, it was different for everyone, without being able to attend our regular Easter Sunday worship services, singing the songs we love so much that are special especially on that day.  I don't know about you, but I sang them anyway.  We awoke early and waited for the sunrise to go outside into our front yard, to rejoice to see the day of Christ's Resurrection.

I stood there at the cross and sang several of my favorites..."He Arose", "Christ The Lord is Risen Today, Alleluia!", and "He Lives".  The neighborhood was quiet and calm. No one else was stirring except for a distant rooster crowing. I thought about Peter when I heard it crow, and was thankful that Peter's denial of Christ did not stop him from repenting of that and being forgiven by Christ...and then going forward to begin what we know as the Church today! How awful it would have been if Peter had quit after denying Christ...we would not even know about Jesus today, nor have any reason to celebrate! So thankful Christ gave Peter another chance when He told him to "Feed My Sheep" in John 21:15-17. 

After singing and waiting on the sunrise in our own yard, we decided to jump in the car and take a short ride to the boat ramp where we hoped we could get a better view of the sunrise:

 It really wasn't much better as it was very overcast, but it did not deter me from continuing my praise and worship of the Risen Christ. Again, I was moved to sing the above mentioned songs and added what I could remember of one of my favorites, "Was it a Morning Like This?"

"Did the grass sing? Did the earth rejoice to feel You again?"

"Over and over like a trumpet underground, did the earth seem to pound He is Risen?, 

Over and over in a never ending round, He is Risen, Alleluia "

Was it a morning like this, when my Lord looked out on Jerusalem? He is Risen, Alleluia...Alleluia...Alleluia!"

Thankfully no one came outside of their homes to tell me to be quiet...but my thoughts were like what Jesus told the Pharisees:

Luke 19:39-40 (NKJV)

"39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”

40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

Finally, I felt satisfied that Jesus knew my heart...and that the angels and saints above were all rejoicing along with me...and it was time to go back to our home and begin the preparations for the day of Easter celebration with our immediate family. I say immediate, meaning our adult son who lives with us, and our other adult son and his wife, who live nearby. We have been appreciating their help over the past month especially since my surgery, and they have been in and out of our home frequently, so we felt safe that we could spend this day together, within reason. No holding hands to say grace, no welcoming hugs, which we miss, but still sharing time together in a reasonable way. I feel badly for those who could not spend time with any family members due to having younger children or other restrictions.  These are difficult times for all, and we pray this "season of social distancing" will soon be a thing of the past and people will be able to get back to work and resume their lives with loved ones once again.

That being said, I thought I'd share a few pictures with you from our Easter family celebration. If you are a Facebook friend, you have probably already seen most of these, but bear with me. There may be some surprises still.

 Many of you already know about my interesting cake...My son asked why I put "stove top stuffing" on top of the cake. That quip took the cake,  so to speak! Actually, I was trying to have a lovely pastel hued multi colored coconut topping, but it just didn't turn out that way. It still tasted good. Next time I will just stick to using green food coloring to look like grass. No one turned down a piece of cake, btw.

Yes, we still have Easter Baskets for our adult children. The trick is, they have to find them first. The Easter Bunny had a difficult time finding good spots in this new house to hide the baskets, but after many hints to the searchers of "hot, cold, luke warm, red hot"...they each finally found their baskets...

If you recall THIS POST a couple of weeks ago, you will remember that we ladies were supposed to display our lovely "Easter Dresses" for at home Easter celebration wear. I'm probably the only one brave (or silly enough) to actually do this.  If you did, please show us your outfit!! I don't want to be the only crazy one in the bunch!

My hubby was getting anxious for the shenanigans to get over with so he could have some lunch:

And lunch we did have, actually, this was "Dinner"...Baked Ham with pineapple and glaze baked by my daughter in law perfectly, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot medley (fresh, not frozen), rolls, and of course deviled eggs!

We even used my good china. I was planning to put them in the dishwasher, but someone grabbed them and washed them first because they didn't want to possibly ruin them in the DW.  That was very thoughtful, but so much for my great plans for saving us some work! LOL.

I know this is picture overload, but I never got around to posting my Easter decorations before Easter, and so I thought I'd better go ahead before we get totally out of the season and you won't be interested in seeing Easter Bunnies and such anymore.

 This is my "Margie Doll", so named for my Aunt Margie, who gave her to me for my 7th birthday many many years ago. She is all dressed up for Easter in a lovely dress that my mother made for her many years ago also.

These next few pictures are just some of the Easter Bunnies that are sitting around...

Or, should I say "hanging around"?  LOL...

Or perhaps swinging in to wish us a Happy Easter...

The green china bunny on the far left was given to me by my maternal Grandma Tedlie when I was a very young child. It is a special treasure.  Some of the ceramic bunnies sitting on the table were given to our boys when they were little by my mother.

And we must not forget Baby Elva,  who is all dressed up for Easter in a dress that I actually wore when I was an infant, so you KNOW that's old!

 With that, I will close this montage of Easter pictures. I hope that you have enjoyed this visit as much as I have enjoyed spending this time with you. I hope to get around to visit your stories in the next few days to see how you have celebrated this special time.

Now let us be like the disciples and go out tell everyone that "Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!" Hallelujah!! Because He lives, we shall live too!!!  The Good News is that because Christ is risen, death does not have the victory!! 

 "Death is swallowed up in victory.

O Death, where is your sting?

O Hades, where is your victory?"

I Corinthians 15:54-55

Praise God!!

Postscript, Let us remember in prayer those who may be suffering loss of home or family due to the bad storms that have been passing through the south yesterday and today, as well as those who are suffering loss of income and health due to the coronavirus. I would not want my "frivolity" above to take away from those who are truly suffering at this time. They are definitely in my thoughts and prayers, as I am sure they are yours as well.