Easter Sunday…

Easter Sunday…4-20-25

Every Easter, for as long as I can remember, my adopted family has gathered for a meal, fellowship, and egg hunting. Over the years, all the children have grown and the little ones who are in the family now haven’t come. This Saturday was the gathering. My husband and I talked about how the times have changed the faces, the people who come, the place we have the gathering, and the precious time we have left to gather. As I get older, I think about and realize more the importance of one more gathering with people I love.

We always take pictures of each family. Even we have changed with more wrinkles, weight loss, health issues, heartaches, and praises. We always take a picture of the siblings. It started with mom and the siblings many years ago. Mom passed away 23 years ago. Then the youngest girl of the original five siblings died. Then in January, the middle daughter. I’m the sixth sibling, the adopted, the foster child that hung around, and the youngest. I wish I could include that picture, but for their privacy I will not. It has deep meaning in the ones who are still here and those who are celebrating this Easter in Heaven.

My heart is sad that they are not with us, but I am assured that I will see them again. I am celebrating that God has them in His arms. I am celebrating that Jesus rose from the dead and will come back again. Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Just like this flower that blooms, Mom’s Iris, it will wither and die just like every person and everything has a time and season. But my God will be with me. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John: 14:16-17).

Before Jesus ascended, he told the disciples, “And behold, I am always with you, to the end of the age”(Matthew 28:20).