He is Risen!

Matthew 28:5,6

"The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he is risen, just as he said.

This year, as Noah is growing older, I want to start some traditions that help him understand that this holiday isn't just for the Easter bunny. I want him to know that this holiday is really a day that we celebrate the fact that Jesus didn't stay in that grave...He was triumphant over death. I want for Noah to understand what exactly his Lord went through to make sure Noah could have the chance to spend eternity with Him. The story below is one my mom told me about. (its long, but very worth the read.) It is my prayer that when it comes Noah's turn in some similar exercise, he will immediately think of his Savior and the price He paid.

Happy Easter Everyone!!


It’s Empty
Harry Pritchett, Jr. wrote an interesting Easter story in Leadership magazine. It starts out “Once upon a time I had a young friend named Philip. Philip was born with Downs Syndrome. He was a pleasant child-happy it seemed-but increasingly aware of the difference between himself and other children. Philip went to Sunday School at the local church. His teacher, also a friend of mine, taught the third-grade class with Philip and nine other eight-year-old boys and girls.
You know eight-year-olds. And Philip, because of his differences, was not readily accepted. But my teacher friend was creative, and he helped the group of eight-year-olds. They learned, they laughed, they played together. And they really cared about one another, even though eight-year-olds don’t say they care about each other out loud. My teacher friend could see it. He knew it. He also knew that Philip was not really a part of that group. Philip did not choose nor did he want to be different. He just was. And that was just the way things were.
My friend had a marvelous idea for his class the Sunday after Easter last year. You know those things that pantyhose come in-the containers that look like great big eggs-my friend had collected ten of them. The children loved it when he brought them into the room. Each child was to get one. It was a beautiful spring day, and the assignment was for each child to go outside, find a symbol of new life, put it into the egg, and bring it back to the classroom. They would then open and share their new life symbols and surprises one by one.
It was glorious. It was confusing. It was wild. They ran all around the church grounds, gathering their symbols, and returned to the classroom. They put all the eggs on a table, and then the teacher began to open them. All the children stood around the table.
He opened one, and there was a flower, and they oohed and aahed. He opened another, and there was a little butterfly. “Beautiful,” the girls all said, since it’s hard for eight-year-old boys to say “beautiful.” He opened another, and there was a rock. And as third graders will, some laughed, and some said, “That’s crazy! How’s a rock supposed to be like new life?” But the smart little boy who’d found it spoke up: “That’s mine. And I knew all of you would get flowers and buds and leaves and butterflies and stuff like that. So I got a rock because I wanted to be different. And for me, that’s new life.” They all laughed.
My teacher friend said something to himself about the profundity of eight-year-olds and opened the next one. There was nothing there. The other children, said, “That’s not fair–That’s stupid!–Somebody didn’t do it right.”
Then my teacher friend felt a tug on his shirt, and he looked down. Philip was standing beside him. “It’s mine,” Philip said. “It’s mine.”
And the children said, “You don’t ever do things right, Philip. There’s nothing there.
“I did so do it,” Philip said. “I did do it. It’s empty. The tomb is empty!”
There was a silence, a very full silence. And for you people who don’t believe in miracles, I want to tell you that one happened that day last spring. From that time on, it was different. Philip suddenly became a part of that group of eight-year-old children. They took him in. He was set free from the tomb of his differentness.
Philip died the next summer. His family had known since the time he was born that he wouldn’t live out a full life span. Many other things had been wrong with his tiny body. And so, late last July, with an infection that most normal children could have quickly shrugged off, Philip died. They mystery simply enveloped him.
As the funeral, nine eight-year-old children marched up to the altar, not with flowers to cover the stark reality of death. Nine eight-year-olds, with their Sunday school teacher, marched up to the altar, and laid on it an empty egg-an empty, old, discarded pantyhose egg.