Thursday afternoon we headed to Greenwood so that I could participate in the Knowing Jesus event at Northside Baptist (Luke's home church). I helped them record a CD back in September of all original songs (written by their worship team) that chronicle the life of Christ from creation to the resurrection. You can click HERE to check it out on iTunes if you're interested! Anyway, the CD release concert garnered so much excitement and enthusiasm that everyone started talking about it and saying, "You all just HAVE to do that again for Easter." So, I was invited to come again! It was such a neat experience. Luke even brought Anna Kate to see it on Saturday night. Here is the view from their seats before it began.
As I said before, the songs span the entire lifetime of Christ, but obviously the ones surrounding Passion week were extremely powerful as we shared them on Friday and Saturday nights. Here are the lyrics to part of one of the songs entitled, "It Is Finished":
"As they drove nails into your hands and feet
You absorbed all the wrath of God intended for me
And as darkness covered us upon your death
Sin atoned forevermore as you drew your final breath
Hallelujah
It is finished
It is finished
Now the guilt and shame no longer keep me bound
It is finished
It is finished
At the cross the lost can finally be found
It is finished"
Pretty powerful music and I was so blessed to be a part of it!
It also gave us a great opportunity for the girls to spend some time with their Mimi and Papa and Uncle Jonathan. Mimi and Uncle Jonathan worked hard to put on quite the Easter egg hunt in the backyard which the girls thoroughly enjoyed.
Each egg contained a teddy graham and a jelly bean which Caroline promptly opened and ate after finding each one!
Saturday night after the final performance of Knowing Jesus was over, we packed up the girls in the van and headed back to Camden. We were pulling into town around 11:30 when we realized that we had forgotten the girls' tights that I had purchased that afternoon to go with their Easter dresses, along with the ingredients for the side dishes I was bringing to Easter dinner at our friends house right after church. Lovely. So, we had no choice but to run by Walmart at 11:30 the night before Easter. It was crazy! Like, pushing your way through aisles, frantically filling your kids' Easter baskets, wild children running around, waiting for 15 minutes in line, CRAZY! But I survived (Luke stayed in the car with our very dazed and confused little girls who woke up with all the bright lights in the parking lot) and we finally arrived back at home just before midnight.
Despite a short night of sleep, the girls woke up with happy hearts and were so excited to finish the last day of our 12 days of Easter. We had to do it without Daddy since he had to be at church at 5:45, but such is life! Anna Kate wasn't too thrilled at first about opening an empty egg, but when I told them that it represented the empty tomb, she lit up and said, "He is Risen!" They were both ecstatic to find brand new Bibles in their Easter basket. Caroline has always loved Anna Kate's little baby New Testament, so we gave her one of her very own! Anna Kate has recently discovered that said baby New Testament doesn't contain the Old Testament, however, and therefore does not contain some of her favorite stories (e.g. the Noah story). So she received a pretty pink Adventure Bible for Early Readers. She proudly carried it all over church that morning explaining to everyone that would listen that she now has a Bible with the New Testament AND the Old Testament AND the Noah story!
After a wonderful service, we headed over to our pastor and his wife's house along with a number of other families from our church to celebrate Easter dinner. Pastor Craig was kind enough to get a few family shots for us! I spent a few days last week making their Easter dresses and I love how they turned out! I know you can't see it in these pictures, but my favorite part is the long sash down the back!
After lunch we all took a great 2-hour nap and then headed over to grill out with our Small Group. Such a wonderful day!
We tried to get a couple pictures of just the girls, but they were too busy running around...story of my life. So I finally got a few good ones at home today (Wednesday!).
My prayer is that we will not just celebrate Christ's resurrection one day out of the year, but that we would live each day resting in His triumphant victory by which he purchased our salvation. He is risen, indeed.
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