He's Alive!

I was thinking about what a great Easter we had this year. That doesn't seem like a typical thought: "Remember the Easter of '11. That was sick." It's usually Christmas, or maybe a birthday (like my 26th, right?)I think that a lot of it was due to the fact that Owen can understand so much. Easter is by far the most important holiday of our faith and it has been fun imparting that to him. I made Resurrection Eggs for us to go through at family worship and the visuals seemed to help. But I forgot to put nails in one egg, so there were two empty plastic eggs. It made the "empty tomb" egg a little less dramatic.

As I thought of ways to teach Owen about Easter, it made me reflect on what exactly Easter celebrates, and how foundational Jesus' resurrection is to our faith.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19

But we know that Christ rose again and is alive. As we (particularly Owen) sing, "Up from the grave he arose! With a mighty triumph o'er his foes." I've been teaching Owen that Jesus died on the cross for our sins (which he now says verbatim every time he sees a cross or some times to his little neighborhood friends). So it was so exciting to be able to explain that now he's alive! He rose from the dead and conquered death and our sins. Now if we see a cross and I say, "Owen, Jesus died for our sins," he'll go on to say how now Jesus is alive, and usually start singing a song that correlates ("Made like him, like him we rise, aaaaa-lle-luuuuuia").

I have never felt more sure of my faith than when teaching my kids about Christ. There's just no way to have those quiet doubts of, "Do I really believe this?" when I want nothing else than for my kids to believe in the same thing. My kids, mind you. Those precious little genetic bundles of wonder I care for each day. My legacy. If I thought Christianity was a sham or even just a little iffy, or if I didn't completely believe that Christ was risen, why in the world would I pray each night that my boys would follow an impotent Savior? A man that was rotting in the ground? I would be of all people most to be pitied.

We've had great Easters before this, of course. Let's have a look shall we?

Easter 2008 - Newlywed Easter in Texas. Made my first ham and had a bunch of people over from church

Easter 2009 - Another Texas Easter; had a 2 and a half month old baby

Easter 2010 - Easter in San Francisco? Yes please!

Easter 2011 - The first of many times our boys will be dressed in matching outfits.