A chocolate cross?

One of many things that my mom did right.... Easter baskets. Let me just say that Cheryl wins in this category year after year. I am not talking the "Oh I forgot and ran to Walmart the night before Easter and got a massively tacky basket wrapped in cellophane". I'm talking walking into the kitchen on Easter morning and spying 3 perfect baskets filled with the perfect ratio of candy to presents. Without fail, year after after, the basket would have a new movie (which used to be whatever Disney movie came out of the "vault" and then became whatever movie Reese Witherspoon had starred in that fall). Then there was always got something that you didn't even know that you wanted or needed.... Some years it was jewelry, other years lotion or gift card to Starbucks. I loved that unexpected (and usually undeserved) gift.

You all can see where this is going. The best (and saddest) part of celebrating Easter is remembering that we were given such a great and unexpected gift. That can be so hard to remember sometimes. I believe that we lose sight of that gift because it reminds us that we are indeed not like my Easter basket...we are not perfect... And that can be so challenging for us (well, at least for me) to admit.

This is the first Easter weekend that I have spent alone in a long, long time. I mean alone in the sense that I am not with my family- I sure don't want the people that I have seen this weekend to think that they mean nothing to me! I also promise not to dive into a "whoa is me..I am all alone" word fest...so keep on reading....

The quiet in our house and my activities this weekend have given me opportunities for reflection. I have learned that there are a few places were I feel more "single" than others... Two of those are at church and at the movie theater. I know, silly and random, but true nonetheless. And because not going to either of these places is not really an option for me, I must embrace the self awareness that they bring. (And I went to both this very weekend.) While I was sitting in church alone on Friday night (again, not bitter), I was thinking about what Jesus' last days on earth must have been like... (well, I was thinking that and I was secretly wishing that there would be another sound mishap with techno music slipping in again this year.) But back to Jesus... talk about feeling ALONE! He had friends betraying him, denying him, and mobs of people ready to kill him (or technically, just watch him by killed). And while I consider my roommates both leaving town for the weekend a small form of betrayal- it in NO way compares to the isolation that Jesus had to feel.

The good news in this story is celebrated today... yes, yes my roommates will return and I have promised to blog amount the experience that I had at the movie theater yesterday... But more importantly we will celebrate this good news, "He is not here; he has risen!" And with that, we will rejoice in a way that is much larger than an Easter basket.