Easter

Happy Easter! I hope you all enjoyed the day and remembered to remember the goodness and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. He took our sins upon him, he suffered for us in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed to the Father in our behalf, he descended lower than anyone ever has, and then he allowed himself to be lifted up on the cross and was crucified. What a joyful blessing the knowledge of the Redeemer's love is to us. I know that through the grace of Jesus Christ all mankind may be saved after all that we can do. I hope you know this too.

We spent the last couple weeks talking with the children about the true meaning of Easter. Starting on Palm Sunday, we discussed what the Savior was doing for the days leading up to his resurrection. I am happy to say that some of it sunk in.

On Saturday before Easter, we had the opportunity to attend the baptism of a family member who lives about an hour away. It was a wonderful afternoon and it was so nice to see our family in happier circumstances.

When we arrived, they were still filling up the baptismal font and my younger children were very interested in this. The baptismal fonts in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints are very large, tiled, usually sunk into the ground, and have steps that lead down into them. The fixtures where the water comes out resemble bathtub fixtures. Maria (the girl being baptized), was glowing. My children were all dressed in their Sunday best and (wonder of wonders-) sitting quietly and reverently (MOSTLY) on the back row.

Maria's aunt gave a talk on baptism. She was saying something about following Jesus' example by entering the waters of baptism. I guess (also wonder of wonders) that Monster Truck(2) was trying to pay attention to what she was saying because he stood up on his chair and SHOUT-whispered to me (I was sitting next to him), "JESUS COME ALIVE IN THAT BAFFTUB!" (So good to know he got something out of our family home evening discussion about the resurrection.) I chuckled and tried to get him to quiet down. Then the aunt said something about a prophet in the Book of Mormon named Alma, who baptized a large group of people in the wilderness at a place called The Waters of Mormon. He jumped up again and said, "NO!, THE WATER'S IN BAFFTUB!!!"

We talked a little afterward about how Jesus was baptized to set the example of perfect obedience to the commandments for us, even though he never sinned. We talked again about how Jesus knelt in the garden, was betrayed by one of his closest friends, taken by the soldiers, was beaten, mocked, humilated, and crucified. And he was resurrected. He lives still. "There.", I thought. "Confusion cleared up."

So we got to church Easter Sunday morning, and as we're going inside, Monster Truck(2) is bounding through the door and he looks up at me with shining eyes and faith in his heart and says, "WE GOING TO SEE JESUS!!!!". He was so happy about it, it was a little heart-wrenching to have to tell him that yes, Jesus is alive, but no, he won't be putting in a LIVE appearance at church today. At least not that I know of.

I guess we should all be looking to the day with the eyes of a two year-old. He IS coming. And Monster Truck(2) can hardly wait. : )