He is Risen!!!

This Easter was so special. Cooper is able to understand that Easter is more than eggs, more than bunnies, and much more than candy. He's been studying about Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross for the past month or so. Some of the questions have been hard and some Warren and I weren't sure if he was old enough to discuss, but overall it was such a wonderful lesson for us all. To remember that Christ died for us and see it through the eyes of a child learning it for the first time...it was truly touching.

Warren and I had been struggling on how to handle the easter bunny thing. We want the focus of Easter to be on Jesus...not on some bunny. But we didn't really want to eliminate the bunny, egg hunts, etc. altogether. So we decided just to down play all of that and have a tradition of our own. We did easter baskets and egg hunts. Cooper had fun at all of those. We colored eggs and decorated them. But, the most important thing that we did, and the most excited Cooper got about anything was the new tradition we came up with. We got a big box, and on Friday night (Good Friday) we discussed Jesus' death. We had a loaf of bread that represented Jesus' body. We wrapped it in a cloth (graveclothes) and laid it in the box (the tomb). We sealed the tomb...Cooper helped with each of these things. AND it stayed on our ottoman in our living room for the three days. Easter morning the seal was broken and the bread had disappeared. ONLY the cloth remained. On Easter morning, Cooper didn't go looking for his easter basket, candy, anything like that....he went straight for the tomb...he knew it would be empty!!! He said, "Mommy, Daddy, He has risen!!!" WE told the true Easter story. AND it was one of those times that you feel you got it right as a parent (there aren't too many of those).

Thank you, Jesus for your sacrifice! He is Risen!!! He is Risen, Indeed!!!