Happy Easter 2017

Nothing gets my Easter spirit going more on Easter morning than hearing our pastor call out a hearty “He is Risen!” which is always followed in response by our church family with an equally hearty “He is Risen indeed!”  And truly nothing is more beautiful to behold on Easter morning, than looking out over our bay to see the sun rising with a quiet but steady brilliance.

This morning’s Sunrise service, did not disappoint.

In a nice turn of events, it was actually relatively warm this morning.

So we gathered and sang and worshipped together.

Pastor Jerry encouraged us with a few words about choosing courage over comfort.  And it definitely hit home for me.  Some of the struggles I’ve been having lately are because I don’t feel completely comfortable.  But I was reminded of the importance of being willing and being courageous no matter the situation and knowing that God works beautifully in both.

After the service, we drove back to church for a beautiful Easter breakfast.

It was a nice time to sit with my loved ones and continue in the joys of this day.

Our worship service started at 9:30am, so as we were walking back over to church we were greeted by so many people that we have come to know and love.

I am so thankful for our church family and for the blessing that they are to us.

We sang one of my favorite hymns in celebration of the morning.  I’ve always loved, “Because He Lives,” and teared up a bit singing those beautiful words.

And then as Pastor Jerry started preaching, I headed downstairs to lead Kids Church.  We had a mini hunt for the Resurrection Eggs and walked through the story of Easter Morning by opening the eggs and seeing the treasures that they held.

Afterwards, we made our own version for the kids to enjoy.  It was a lovely way to wrap up our Easter Morning at Eastport Bible Church.

When we got home, I took my usual Easter family pics.  Though one of these years, I should find someone to come and take one with all four of us.

And then we did a mini egg hunt for our kids.  We don’t get too crazy, but Ellee was so excited about it this year, so we carried on because I don’t want to rush through these fun stages.  She had picked out an Easter bucket this weekend, but we agreed that Christian was too old for one.  Which ended up in him collecting his eggs in an Amazon box.  He didn’t mind though and mostly was just excited to enjoy the candy that was inside.

And then, the most unexpected, but delightful part of our day occurred.  While the kids were searching for their eggs in the yard, our dear friends the Tuttles drove by.  Mr. Nathan Tuttle called out to Ellee to ask her mom to hide eggs for him next year.  So she got the idea of going out and buying treats to go and hide in the Tuttle’s yard so Mr. Tuttle could have his own egg hunt.  So that is exactly what we did.

(She wanted to be sneaky so on the  way to his house she decided to take off her shoes.  When I noticed, I told her she had to put them back on, of course, but nevertheless it made me smile.”

She filled up the eggs with goodies and even wrote a note to put on his porch.

Then, with the help of Mrs. Tuttle who made sure he was distracted, she ran around his yard hiding all 30 eggs.

Then she snuck around the corner, binoculars in hand to watch the whole thing play out.

My goodness, this girl is such a delight.

Mr. Tuttle came out, found her note and eventually us and then proceeded to go and find all 30 eggs.  And I can’t tell you how fun it was to do something fun and watch the joy just spread all around.

He eventually found all 30 eggs, and even a “Mystery One” that she hid that had a green toy chicken in it.  In a fun turn of events, he told us that this was the first egg hunt that he had done since he never did one growing up.  Which made it all even that much more delightful.

And that about sums up our Easter.  I have to say, all in all, it was a pretty fantastic one.  Happy Easter to everyone and hope your day brought as much hope and joy and delight as ours did.