April 9

The older I get, the more thankful I am for Easter.

Naturally, we ate the cinnamon rolls I picked up at Grocery Outlet yesterday and the boys received their candy-laden Easter baskets and ran around the backyard in rather hilarious fashion scouting out the bright plastic eggs scattered by the Easter bunny (with varying degrees of success). Those are traditions that I treasure because they bring about mental screenshots of days gone by when all of my kids were with me. And in some cases (like watching Isaac scale the outdoor furniture and seeing Brady scramble up the hill like a... well, like a fast, sure-footed little animal) they make me laugh. They even summon gleeful decades-old memories of spying that latest edition of the Baby-Sitters Club nestled in a sea of pink Easter grass.

But we also went to church, and as I stood there singing to my God, my Jesus, I had a simple thought: THIS is what Easter is about. It's about gratitude and gathering together with others who believe and letting the Holy Spirit truly refresh my oft-parched soul with Living Water. It's about recognizing that I'm in the presence of God and thanking Him for who He is and all He does. It's important to do that every day, really, but it's most important on this very special, very significant day. 

No, this human life isn't perfect. But it's good and what's to come is even better. So thank you, Jesus, for paying the price for me. For us. Because He is Risen!