Gosh I love that hymn.
We sung it at the end of every service growing up. It was a visual song for me as a child. I would hold the hands of my church family across the isle and see myself walking toward Jesus. No turning back.
As Easter drew close, I felt an unease that I remember feeling at Christmas. A feeling like the focus was off, and like I was in a tailspin to keep our family focused on Jesus and his sacrifice instead of egg hunts, the bunny, baskets, new clothes, candy, etc. I have to be honest, sometimes I feel like a complete freak. Like I am a glutton for punishment. Why can't I just go with it?
At church on Sunday, this hymn was sung. And my parents were in church with us. I cried singing it of course...and I remembered why I can't just "go with it".
Tho none go with me, I still will follow...
The world behind me, the cross before me...
No turning back, no turning back...
In a desperate need for a feeling of normalcy I reached out to someone I adore and asked her to blog about Easter so that I could steal it and share here (I was kidding of course....maybe). She was already writing it. Not that you really want to know more behind my thoughts, but if you are looking for a great read and a woman after God's heart...introducing Jen Hatmaker. Get ready, she's gonna mess with your head!
Fast forward to last night. Our precious foster family that we are supporting invited us to Easter dinner knowing we didn't have family close. I began to get nervous about how I was going to explain. She emailed me about the plans and Blake and I discussed how in the world we would tell them our thoughts/desires for Easter to be different for our family. This morning she showed up at my door to drop off the boys for the day and we talked a bit more about plans for Sunday. Then she said, "Ummm. Have you ever heard of Jen Hatmaker?"
Holy bananas! Thank you Lord for placing us with a family that not only shares our faith, our passion for the fatherless, but also "gets" our holiday make-over!
Praying that our children grasp the unconditional love of our Father, and that this weekend we can teach them of His ultimate sacrifice on the cross and resurrection on Sunday.
4 comments:
Jen will really mess with your head! I finished reading Seven about a month ago and I'm still not over it! So good! So so so good! We're doing the same things. Someone asked me at church last night about where I was going to get pictures with the Easter Bunny taken and was shocked when I said we weren't going to take them and why. We're so brainwashed as a culture it's hard to pull away. Sorry for the novel...
I'm going to make a confession:
My mom was right.
There, I said it. Hopefully she never stumbles across your blog!
Seriously though, my family struggles with Christmas...what all to do...but Easter has NEVER been a question. And I thank my mom. She would hide some eggs for fun, sometimes we'd dye some as a fun springtime activity, but never ever did the Easter Bunny come visit and bring us candy, gifts, etc. So I haven't had to deal with wiping that from my mind, cause it wasn't ever there. Hopefully your kids will appreciate that too, and tell you that 'you were right'. Eventually. Maybe before they are 35 ;)
Oh mcKenzie!!! Thanks for sharing! So glad I am not alone!!! Miss you all :)
Thanks for sharing that link! I almost started crying at work when I read it. I've been trying to keep the "extras" out of our Easter this year and focus on teaching Ciela about the real reason for the holiday but I've slipped a bit. That post gives me the nudge I needed to get things back on track.
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