EASTER WEEK 2014--Getting ready for Good Friday and Easter Sunday

We celebrate Easter this coming weekend.  For me personally, it's easy to let the relevance of the occasion slide by without tbinking about why we take time out for this special day.  

If I was sitting around the dinner table with my three grandchildren and if they asked how I celebrated Easter as a child, I'd go back to an archive of memories.  Growing up in Bay City, right at the door way to northern Michigan, my first memories of the season were at Immanuel Lutheran Church on the eastside of the Saginaw River.

The organ music was grand and the church was decorated with lillies and other elements that emphasized light.  There were always lots of people, many of whom sat on chairs set up in the aisles. And when they sang the Easter hymns, you could actually hear the people singing louder than the organ played.  

As a young child, I almost expected that Jesus was waiting off on the side ready to make an entrance. For an hour or so, the hope inside the church was thick and bright.

I wonder what Easter is like at Immanuel these days.  

I don't remember hearing this song when I was a kid, but I think Sandi Patty captures the essence of Easter Sunday.  It's a special day that these days seems to have been co-opted by the Easter Bunny.