Christ, Children, and Confetti!

I LOVE Easter! It’s good and hard and a time of brokenness and healing…

Christ.

Spiritually… it’s a time of remembering Jesus, and the fact that facing death is real, so real that his sweat became blood. He was so grieved and stressed, his body reacted as he had so intricately designed. Pause here for a moment. Think about how you sweat, and then think about that turning to blood!

Although I cannot identify and say I have ever had this happen, I can say I have had the experience of bleeding non-stop, whether a wound or nose bleed, etc. In these moments, I feel light headed, weak, disoriented. I can only get a glimpse, but that glimpse is more than enough to be incredibly grateful for the following days of Jesus’ life! He faced our death, a criminal’s death, on the cross, was buried, walked out of the tomb, and is Risen INDEED! All for us to be able to live with Him one day! WOWZERS!!!

For the last four years, but especially the last three, I have become more “acquainted” in a sense, with Mary, the mother of Jesus. She gets a lot of attention at Christmas, but not so much at Easter. She is as much the Mommy who gave him birth at Christmas as she is when he died on the cross, was buried, and rose from the dead. In between these two holidays for her, there is constant letting go. Letting go and allowing Jesus to start his ministry, travel, to believe in who He really is, to watch him be persecuted, yelled at, called names, and beat and bruised, nailed to a cross… She knew some of these things would happen, I am sure she tried to convince herself otherwise, but ultimately she knew WHO and WHY he came. As a mommy myself, I honestly cannot fathom having to know I would have to standby and watch just one of these things happen to any child! However, I have watched my little girl, who I longed for for so long, go from needing oxygen and Biliblanket in the NICU to leaving the hospital and thriving and growing and being the firecracker that kept us laughing, to growing some more, gaining some mighty muscles, to eating oatmeal and apples and bananas. Then coughing/gagging through feedings, then within two weeks I watched her go from eating and taking bottles, to a little formula a day, to nothing, just medicine to keep her comfy, and then more medicine to make her comfy and ease her way into Jesus’ Risen arms! The ONLY way I could watch this and make the tough decisions, was because I knew she would be returning to her Heavenly Father. And I believe this is the ONLY way Mary could do what she did, because Jesus was returning to His Heavenly Father!

Children.

For a few years before Lucy’s arrival, my family and I would have a big easter egg hunt at our house! It’s no secret how much I love being around children. One year it was sunny. One year it snowed. We had the egg hunt in our house! One year it was chilly. We had about every weather challenge, but it didn’t stop us. It was an open invitation to all. So the best thing is we had no clue who would show up, how many children, and how many new friends we would meet! Families that I had kept would come, family friends, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins! We would have some ridiculous amount of eggs, somewhere between 300-500. From experience, we did no candy in the eggs, because of allergies and little ones getting their hands on “no-no candy.” It was a fun challenge to look all year, for stickers, band-aids, little figurines, bracelets, notepads, pens, etc. And then seeing the children get so excited… priceless! We even did a 10 and older hunt- with tickets, the prizes were a little bigger 🙂 We would have Chick-Fil-A and donuts, yummmm! And just have fun! (Picture above, our greeter, which my nephew name “Me Hoppy.” :))

I loved doing this in preparation for Easter Sunday! Jesus was the one who told his disciples to Let the little children come! I loved seeing children play together, sometimes never asking each others names. Something is right about that, just friends. We had the space and the land and all they had to do was come. I had started this tradition when my niece was tiny. My pawpaw was also alive and visiting my grandma every day in the nursing home. But he absolutely ADORED children, he valued them, he would remember things that were important to them. And so he became our mascot Easter Egg 🙂 He was able to be with us for two egg hunts, and we have some really great memories that we cherish for sure!

The year Lucy came we didn’t have an egg hunt. Easter was during the critical bonding time and also during the time of post-adoption home study and finalization. But for the years prior, the news of my waiting on Lucy spread through the crowd, and I am beyond grateful for the prayers and encouragement that I received during this time!

Confetti.

What’s a celebration without confetti? Well, funny story, the first year my dad and I “blew out” two dozen egg shells, filled them with confetti, and mod podged them. Come to find out the week before Easter you can find eggs already “confettied” for $1 a dozen. We made a memory though! So why confetti eggs? Because CHRIST IS RISEN! And on the count of three I want you to say INDEED! and let the confetti fall! 1 – 2 – 3 INDEED! Confetti in hair, covering the ground, and bright reminder that there is new life with Jesus!

We all get to make a choice. Will I…

Face death and end up living empty like an egg shell?

Face death and embrace Jesus’ sacrifice for us, and become the bright confetti that you find for days and years to come?