Monday, April 21, 2014

Ascension Day!

Looking back over the Easter week-end, I love seeing so many special Easter pictures online of family and friends.  Just when I was wondering if there would be any of our youngest grandchildren,  my heart was gladdened to see the baby looking adorable, the girls gorgeous, and the family shot of all of them so handsome!

We had a beautiful Easter service at church  (which looked fresh and attractive due to the creative efforts of our pastor and pastor's wife).  Chatting before service, Howard and I were remarking to the friend in the pew in front of us about her bright little six-year-old son. I was reminded of the movie we had seen on Saturday.

"We saw Heaven is for Real yesterday," I said to her.  "The little boy in that was very smart."  We talked about the story for awhile, then she whispered something to me.  "What?" I asked.

"I had a little cousin who had a near-death experience once," she related.  "He was injured in an accident, hitting his head, causing a bad concussion with unconsciousness."

I asked her more about it, and she said, "When he came to, he told his mother, 'I saw Jesus! There was a door that was open, but he told me I couldn't go through it. He said I had to go back home because it wasn't time for me yet.'"  He was four years  old!

"This was not a family that went to church, but after that, they all became church-goers, living for the Lord," she finished.

For the first time in years, I did not do any Easter decorating as pertains to the commercial aspect of the holiday.  No dyed eggs, Easter baskets, jelly bird-eggs, or chocolate bunnies were in the house.  I used to make Easter baskets for our children, even sending some to their college rooms. Now I leave those traditions to them, as parents.

My daughter, whose kids are getting older in teen years, mentioned to me over the phone that she gave them the choice of getting Easter baskets or new Easter outfits, with candy being put in a big bowl for the house.  They chose the new clothes, and had a great time shopping and decking out for church.

"Then later," Amy said, "Corrin came to me and said, 'Next year, do you think we could get legit Easter baskets?'"  I had to laugh, since she is almost a senior in high school, but it is hard to let go of childhood traditions.

One tradition I kept was making Easter dinner.  When I found out our son's family would be out of town for Easter, I considered just going out to eat.  Then it was decided that the older grandchildren (who don't live at home anymore) would not be going with their parents, so I invited them over to eat with us.  It gave me a reason to make the dinner special with deviled eggs on a platter, ham and all the trimmings, and homemade strawberry short-cake for dessert.  I even put some of our beautiful purple irses in vases for a seasonal touch.

Granddaughter brought her boyfriend, and I invited their other grandmother, too, so we had a festive holiday meal, good conversation and happy fellowship in commemoration of our Lord's beautiful Ressurection Day!

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