This, unfortunately, is Jeff's idea of a family picture. No jokes. When we got home from church I said, "Let's get a picture before we mess up our nice clothes." Jeff then grabbed my phone and snapped this shot of Sawyer. I'm pretty certain he was on his way over to Elouise to get a mugshot of her in her car seat as well, when I snatched back my device and demanded a real picture. In the end, this is as good as it got folks:
I love Easter. I love all the unnecessary, but wonderfully fun activities like egg hunts, coordinating family outfits, egg dyeing, making deviled eggs, eating our combined weight in Cadbury eggs, and going to see little baby chicks. Having this little family and starting, as well as solidifying, our own family traditions always gives me happy mom butterflies. But the greatest family Easter tradition for me is the tradition of faith that my parents passed on to me. I know that Christ lives. This knowledge transcends everything else that makes me happy about Easter, because it is the one thing that has consistently and continually brought me lasting happiness and comfort.
When I moved out to Utah to start college, among all the jitters and opportunity college usually brings, I was excited about getting to know my dad's side of the family better. I was floored when 3 days after my arrival, my cousin passed away suddenly in a car accident and at what should have been a time brimming with life, I was emptied by the sting of death. I couldn't understand how something so seemingly unfair could happen and be OK. I felt that it couldn't be right for his life to be lost, not at his age and not with how wonderfully he was trying to live. It was scary that someone so full of life could die; that he could leave life just as he was really starting to live it. I felt that I was just starting to really live life, and that created a painful juxtaposition between my life and his. It turned me to inspect what I believed about eternity, God and Jesus Christ, and the reality of life after death. There were some overwhelmingly, soul-heavy moments, but I emerged knowing, above all, that God has a plan for all his children. Part of that plan was to send Jesus Christ to die for all people and be resurrected so that in turn, all of God's children could live again. It is beyond comforting for me to know that the end of this life isn't really the end of all life. I know that Christ lives, and that because he lives, so does my cousin, so will I, and so will all people who inhabit the earth. That is what I most love to celebrate on Easter.
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