On other Easter Sundays for dessert we’ve had Esther’s famous Orange Marmalade cake. But Eldest Daughter always makes it. I don’t know if I can make such a demanding cake or not. I tend to be more comfortable with cake mixes and little plastic containers of frosting.
However, it is Easter, and one ought to make something special.
Have any of you read this Easter story by Jan Karon? it looks and sounds precious.
At Read Roger, they’re discussing popular songs that borrow lyrically or title-wise from children’s literature. Contributions, anyone?
Barbara Curtis of Mommy Life has some great ideas for celebrating Easter. I posted about Semicolon Family’s Easter traditions here and here.
Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost on What Men Lose When They Marry. Engineer Husband is still trying, after 20+ years of marriage, to get a nap, but it’s not my fault he can’t. A four year old in the house is the perfect antidote to naptime.
We’ve been cleaning house madly all day, and we finished one and a half rooms and the hallway. And one of the bathrooms. Oh well, it’s a start.
I’m going to reward myself by sitting quietly and watching Ben Hur with Charlton Heston. (The movie is with CH; I’m going to watch it with whichever of the urchins I can corral.) He’s old enough to be my dad, but still Mr. Heston is a good-looking Judah Ben-Hur. And it’s a long movie. I’ll get a lot of rest.
Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon–
I, only I.Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.
From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:45-46
I’m forgiven
because You were forsaken
I’m accepted
You were condemned
I’m alive and well
Your Spirit is within me
Because You died and rose again
Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You
You are my King
You are my King
Jesus, You are my King
You are my King
Everlasting Calvary by Amanda at Wittingshire.
Amanda writes, “The bottom is sound, because beneath everything–no matter how far we fall, how deep we plunge–beneath everything are the everlasting arms of that “everlasting Calvary,” holding us, bearing us up.”
I’ve always thought of the image of a tunnel, that there is a “through”. No matter how dark or long Friday’s tunnel, there is a Resurrection Sunday coming.
Jesus’ disciples weren’t so sure about that “through”. They left the scene of Jesus’ passion and hid themselves for fear.
But John says, “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them . . . ” (John 20:19)
Then the disciples saw “through” to the other side, the end of the tunnel that is Eternal Joy. Because of God’s Everlasting Calvary.
I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numb’d too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimm’d with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall–the sap of Spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.My life is like a broken bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perish’d thing;
Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.
Sometimes I see no everlasting hills either. In fact, the past few days have been a lot like the tone of this poem —dry, frozen, tedious, numbed.
But I nevertheless believe in a better resurrection.
Christ on the Cross
Rembrandt van Rijn
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit . . . I Peter 3:18
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death�
even death on a cross! Philippians 2:8
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus), and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 3:19-20
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:15
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. I Corinthians 3:18
Easter Sunday
Carty, Leo
God expects from men something more than at such times, and that it were much to be wished for the credit of their religion as well as the satisfaction of their conscience that their Easter devotions would in some measure come up to their Easter dress.
Author: Bishop Robert South
Source: Sermons (vol. II, ser. 8)
Do you buy new clothes for Easter? Why? Where do you wear your new clothes if you don’t go to church? Did you get a new suit or dress on Easter when you were a child?
My girls have been asking for new dresses, but we haven’t managed to go shopping yet. Money’s a little tight, too. Maybe today or Saturday, we’ll go to the resale shop and find something for my five girls who are home–maybe even a new shirt for each of the two boys.
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.
Words and Music by George Bernard
Islam has its crescent and sword, Marxism its hammer and sickle. Buddhists have statues of the Buddha himself, laughing or serious, according to one’s taste. Other religions and philosophies have their symbols of power and victory.
Christians have the cross. We may pretty it up and hang it on a gold chain, but at its heart Christianity is about an old rugged cross, an instrument of torture and death. A cross is not much of a victory. A cross is not about becoming powerful or defeating all one’s enemies. A cross in Roman times meant only thing: a slow and painful death.
And yet . . .
Maundy Thursday “has also been known as Sheer Thursday, due to the idea that it is the day of cleaning (schere) and because the churches themselves would switch liturgical colors from the dark tones of Lent. This name is a cognate to the word still used throughout Scandinavia, such as Swedish ‘Skärtorsdag’, Danish ‘Skærtorsdag’ and Norwegian ‘Skjærtorsdag’.” From Wikipedia’s article on Maundy Thursday.
Computer Guru Son and I are spending today, Friday, cleaning house instead of Thursday. We hope to get it all picked up, and shined up and cleaned up for Resurrection Sunday. Maybe I should post before and after pictures. However, I’m too embarrassed at the mess to post a before picture, and I may be too disappointed at what little we are able to accomplish to post an after picture.
Thank the Lord we are saved by grace and not by a clean house.
