Easter in the East

We had a really special Easter this year.  I think it was because we celebrated in a lot of ways we never had before and it made Easter so much more significant and meaningful.  To start off with, we all participated in Lent this year.  I know for some that makes you think of the Catholic church and might make you wonder why we would want to do that.  Well, this was the first time I had ever participated in Lent and honestly hadn’t ever even given it much thought before.  The basic premise of Lent is joining with Christ in His forty day fast while He was in the desert.  So, you choose something special and important to you and forty days before Easter you stop eating it or drinking it or using it, or whatever, depending on what you are fasting from.  Besides practicing self-discipline, it ended up being a very meaningful way of putting me in an appropriate mindset for Easter.  If I was in Texas, the only things to remind me of the Easter season would be big stuffed bunnies, colored plastic eggs, and egg-shaped Reeses peanut butter cups at wal-mart.  Don’t get me wrong, the egg-shaped Reeses are definitely one of my favorite, but they honestly don’t do much as far as helping me to remember what Easter really is.  With Lent, I was reminded every day for forty days what was coming and couldn’t help but think about Christ and how he must have felt in his anticipation of the Easter season.  Anyway, I’m not trying to advocate Lent or say you need to participate in Lent to have a meaningful Easter, I’m just saying it was very special for me and I’m glad we participated in it together as a team.

Second, we had a special candle-light service, called a Tenebrae service, one night during the week prior to Easter Sunday.  It too was a very special time in which we participated in the Last Supper with Christ and his apostles and joined in with Him in the darkness of the hour at hand and felt the weight of the shadow of death that was upon Him.  It was a quiet, heavy, almost mournful time.  We shared a simple meal together, sang a songs of the cross, and read the story of Christ’s betrayal, arrest, denial, trial, and death.  As we read Christ’s last words, “It is finished.” we extinguished the only candle illuminating the room and sat quietly in darkness, taking in the weight of Christ’s death wondering what it must have been like for his followers on that dark day.  We said the Kyrie Eleison, Lord have mercy on us, and when home in sadness.

Because of those two things, Lent and our Tenebrae service, I think it made the joy and meaning of Sunday that much more special and significant.  Saturday evening, everyone came over to our house.  We had a special meal together, played with the kids and then put them all in bed and everyone spent the night at our house!  It was Tonya’s idea and something I think we had all been looking forward to.  The next morning, Sunday, the adults got up early and went outside for a sunrise Easter service.  We didn’t do anything that special, just prayed together, sang some songs, and read the story of Christ’s resurrection.  But, like I said, in light of Lent and the sadness of the Tenebrae service earlier in the week, the joy and celebration of knowing Christ had defeated death, was very meaningful.

At that point, the kids began waking up and coming down stairs excited to see if the Easter bunny had made it all the way to Thailand.  Of course, he had, so we all ate breakfast and then had a big Easter egg hunt.  After the hunt and a lot of candy, we all went inside and had a special resurrection Bible lesson for the kids that Tonya had prepared.  Easter was special this year and I just wanted to share it with you.  Hope you enjoy the pictures, click here for more.