More Easter!

Daniel and me at the Easter egg hunt.


At my church on Easter Sunday, we do this thing called the Flowering of the Cross. They started this back in like 1977; we started going there in 1979; so they've been doing it as long as I can remember. What happens is that all the children are asked to bring flowers to church on Easter, and then during the service, they come forward and place their flowers in the cross, and when it's all covered in flowers, it's hoisted up over the altar. It's always very beautiful, whatever one's thoughts on religion, God, Christ, or otherwise may be. It reminds me every year that this is really what life -- and Easter -- is all about -- this unbroken circle in which we resurrect ourselves over and over by passing down traditions to our children, who will pass them down to theirs, and so on. It's an amazing feeling to look into the faces of the children watching the cross go up and see how fascinated they are by its beauty -- toddlers and preschoolers and kids and tweens and teenagers, and all the adults who love them, taking a moment to literally stop and smell the flowers, to stop and share a simple moment of beauty that if we're lucky, we can carry in our hearts during darker days to remind us that it's not always going to hurt.


See the two older kids behind Daniel? They used to be in my two-year-old class in the Sunday school. Seems like it really wasn't that long ago, but they're like, 11, now!