I'm writing daily this month on being interrupted by grace. Learn more and join in here.
Easter morning was fun and included a little bit of this:
And a little bit of that:
Then we left for church!
Brian was pretty distracting at the beginning of the service, but once I held him while we sang, he relaxed a little and tried to sing along with the joyous and triumphant music of Easter morning. Right at confession time, he asked me to take him to the nursery. I took my bulletin along and read the prayer and confessed my sins on the walk back from the nursery. (I probably missed some; I think I do every week!) When the sermon began I realized I didn't have a pen - I usually take notes - so I borrowed a pencil from a woman behind me. Colin promptly asked if I'd take Katherine, who he'd been holding the whole time, because she was making him hot. I took her and she started to fuss. I whisked her out of the service to a place where I couldn't quite hear the sermon ... so close, yet so far. She was happy laying on this little bench looking at herself in the mirror. She really need to catch a little nap, but every time I tried that she cried. It sure seems loud when it's your baby crying!
Needless to say, I missed most of the sermon. And I never used that pencil.
The gist was this, however:
HOPE
Because Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again, we can have hope.
This has become the bedrock of my life. So that even if I don't get to do church the way I'd like on Easter Sunday morning or if circumstances are not what I'd like them to be, I don't have to despair. Jesus, the same, yesterday, today, and forever, will always be my loving and consistent Lord, Savoir, Shepherd, and Friend.
It's all of God and it's awesome.
I do hope you had a blessed Easter and that, even if you were interrupted and it didn't go quite as you planned, you knew in your heart the joy of the hope that is offered in the death and resurrection of Christ. Our Lord is making all things new. Hallelujah!
We spent the evening with some friends, enjoying delicious food and wonderful fellowship. It was a good day and I'm thankful that we wake on Easter Monday and the Truth is still true, our sins can still be forgiven, and new life is still held out to those who will take hold of it.
Happy Easter!
I had a moment yesterday at Church where I was interrupted by Song. It had been a nice morning but a crazy one. Everyone was behaving, but it was just stressful getting everyone out the door to Church (Michael had to work yesterday, so I was doing this by myself). When we got to church for the egg hunt each kid was in a different age group in a different area and again being by myself my stress level started to go up a bit. But again all went well, and then it was time to drop everyone off and they are all in different classrooms and in 2 different buildings. So by the time I had done everyone and got to church I needed to take a deep breath and let it all go. But as I sat down and looked around at all the families together I have to admit I was a bit sad that I was there alone. That my husband works in a place where they don't close on holidays. And then we started singing and the song that we started with was one that we sang all the time at our old church and I felt myself myself just relax. There was a sense of peace that came over me and made me feel right at home and I was able to let everything go and just enjoy the service to its fullest yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your interruption story, Gretchen. Praise God! I'm so thankful He met you and you were able to be blessed by the service in the midst of the chaos and busyness. I'm so glad you were kept from despair or self-pity by worship. So cool! :)
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