The Wild Wortley's Adventures!: Easter Morning...He is Risen!

Easter morning came and things were smooth. We got to church at a good time, everyone made it into the classes except for Keegan, but we were ok with taking him in the ‘big church’ with us. He was excited and said, “Mom, I’ve never sat in YOUR class before. This has a lot of people in it!” We were able to get through the first song when Grissom’s number appeared on the big screen! I totally blame his fever from last week. We knew he was teething and really wanted to go to Shoreline the week before so we decided just to go to that family room they have. Well, Grissom LOVED it! He colored, ate snacks, and got to stay with us…which made him not so easy to leave this Easter morning! They sure didn’t try to keep him long! So…I ended up listening to the sermon sitting on a toddler chair in the back of the room so Grissom could color…I mean throw crayons and laugh real loud and Keegan could roll all over the floor! I wasn’t having a great attitude to say the least. Oh, did I mention that as we walked into the building there was a heavy mist/rain in the air and we all got wet! I just wanted to go home. But I knew I wasn’t alone and if I’d even mention it we’d have tears everywhere! So I prayed instead. I just asked God to forgive my selfish heart and my selfish desires to want to go home. I asked Him to help us stay busy the rest of the day so no one would have time to have a thought about home. On our way home we stopped by the store to pick up 2 items…Mark had his ‘grump’ set it. I just knew the struggles he was having weren’t much different than the struggles I’d been having. I ran through the store and we made it home in one piece…but no time for pictures…cause I had a dinner to fix. Mark invited our neighbors last minute and by 1:30 we had the strangest looking group to celebrate Jesus Resurrection! Try to imagine; our family of 5…Chase (20) and his wife, Katherine (19), Mike, and Greg the guys Mark works with; pretty rough kind of considered scary men…but we were all there ready and willing to celebrate…whether they believed it or not…the FACT that Jesus was killed on the cross and this was the 3^rd day…the day in which He awakened from the grave and came back to life! Did you know that it is recorded in the Bible that Jesus told about his death 3 times in Matthew…do you think each time represented a day to equal the 3 days before He arose? Hmmm. Anyways, our dinner was nice. It consisted of a Ham (one that I was happy to serve cold, but Mark insisted it be warm…so HE heated it up in the microwave! Ha!! It tasted super yummy!!) Macaroni and Cheese, Deviled Eggs, Baked Beans, and Beer Bread (super healthy…I totally forgot to add the veggies! Oops!). We actually had a REALLY good time! Our kids all did great! It felt like a normal crazy family gathering! Everyone talked, ate, and laughed for a nice few hours. We ate the entire bunny cake that was made. It was a great time!

After this things got too quite in a real blink of an eye. When I wanted to sit in self pity about missing out on my comfortable Easter traditions back home, I was reminded of what Jesus truly did for me on this day. Hang in there through this one…it’s special to my heart. David Platt says it best in his book, Radical (chapter 2);

“But this picture of Christ and the Cross is woefully inadequate, missing the entire point of the gospel. We are not saved from our sins because Jesus was falsely tried by Jewish and Roman officials and sentenced by Pilate to die. Neither are we saved because Roman persecutors thrust nails into the hands and feet of Christ and hung him on a cross…Do we really think that a crown of thorns and whips and nails and a wooden cross and all the other facets of the crucifixion that we glamorize are powerful enough to save us? Picture Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. As he kneels before his Father, drops of sweat and blood fall together from his head. Why is he in such agony and pain? The answer is NOT because he is afraid of crucifixion. He is not trembling because of what the Roman soldiers are about to do to him. Since that day countless men and women in the history of Christianity have died for their faith…We can rest assure that he was not a coward about to face Roman soldiers. Instead he was a Savoir about to endure divine wrath. Listen to his words: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” The “cup” is not a reference to a wooden cross; it is a reference to divine judgment. It is the cup of God’s wrath.

This is what Jesus is recoiling from in the garden. All God’s holy wrath and hatred towards sin and sinners, stored up since the beginning of the world, is about to be poured out on him, and he is sweating blood at the thought of it.

What happened at the cross was not primarily about nails being thrust into Jesus’ hands and feet but about the wrath due your sin and my sin being thrust upon his soul.

In that holy moment, all the righteous wrath and justice of God due us came rushing down like a torrent on Christ himself. Some say, “God looked down and could not bear to see the suffering that the soldiers were inflicting on Jesus, so he turned away.” But this is not true. God turned away because he could not bear to see your sin and my sin on is Son…

At the Cross, Christ drank the full cup of the wrath of God, and when he had drowned the last drop, he turned the cup over and cried out, “It is finished.”

This is the gospel. The just and loving Creator of the universe has looked upon hopelessly sinful people and sent his Son, God in the flesh, to bear his wrath against sin on the cross and to show his power over sin in the Resurrection so that ALL who trust in him will be reconciled to god FOREVER.”

Wow. End of any complains that may come. I hope this also hits you where it stings a bit. Jesus wasn’t a wimp who couldn’t handle earthly death…he is our Savior who took on ALL sin and the sin still to come so I…so YOU could live eternity in heaven with Him…now that’s thick!

So before I had too long to think we ended up skyping with my family (although the volume didn’t work so we signed to each other…then used our cell phones on speaker which was super hard to hear) it was good to see everyone, but really hard to see them altogether…and we’d not even been able to talk to Mark’s family…so we did what any family would have done to ‘SAVE THE DAY” We headed back to that secluded beach from the day before!! And what a beautiful sight it was today. Funny how just the day prior and the water was dark and somber and today, Resurrection Day and the water was bright and clear and the waves crashed as if they were in celebration! I kid you not…they were party’n high! We laid on the beach and talked with Scott and Roxanne a bit! They were on their way home from Mark’s grandparent’s…anyway, it was so nice to hear their voices!

What a wonderful way to celebrate. Like I facebooked: You have Easter egg Hunts…we have God’s beauty that we were basking in!!

Here’s a killer story for you: Saturday we’d stopped by Old Navy cause the dress I sewed for myself wasn’t going to work…let's just say if I want to feel super risk a I MIGHT wear it to a bar cause the top of this dress just didn’t work…we’ll leave it at that. Anyway, as we were leaving we passed the $1 toys and I grabbed the kids each one of those sticky hands that you throw around. Keegan got to playing with his while we were all in the family room I hear him eating something from the kitchen. I walked in and seriously started laughing so hard that I almost fell over!! He’d taken that silly sticky hand and thrown it up onto the countertop and ‘happened’ to hit the bowl with our Easter candy in it…and he came away with like 3 pieces of candy…those pieces were overflowing out of his mouth cause he realized what a genius he was and knew he’d get caught…so he was moving in for “handful” #2 and that’s what I saw…it was the funniest thing ever…so finny that Mark and I couldn’t even tell him that it was a big NO…we rolled from that one!

"Mommy...Hair...do it...Sheese!"