Remembering His Sacrifice

I love this time of year. Easter is my favorite holiday because I love remembering the sacrifice Christ made for the sins of His people, especially ALL of mine (which are many), and the power that God displayed when He raised Him from the dead on the third day. I LOVE teaching my children about the love of Christ to die on that cross when he was completely blameless. I love telling them that He made the choice to die because He loves us so much and wanted to obey His Father in heaven.

It seems at every holiday, I find myself wishing that life wasn't so busy so that I had more time to focus on doing meaningful things with my family to celebrate the importance of all that God has done since the creation of the world. This year, I'm wondering if life will ever slow down. I think I've given up and have accepted the fact that life will always be this way because: 1. We have children and 2. We continue moving and uprooting our family. So, I'm very slowly trying to make the best of what isn't my brain's idea of the ideal situation. I think life is teaching me that there are very few times when the situation is what I've dreamed up in my mind!

My dad arrived last night to celebrate the holiday with us and to take me and the kids back to Houston to await the birth of Anna Michelle Metting! After we ate dinner, we played Resurrection/Easter Bible Bingo. We used jelly bean eggs as our markers. (Last year, we used marshmallows but I thought the kids would like candy for this year.) I got the idea for Easter Bingo from this website. They have a lot of fun ideas for making Easter Christ-centered rather than bunny-centered. We had a lot of fun and everyone won except me! Jackson and Allison pulled the bingo chips/cards. Allison didn't play but she had fun stealing all of Jason's markers (jelly bean eggs)! Here's an example of one of the game boards. Each of the pictures help tell the story of Christ going to Jerusalem to face the cross and then to rise from the grave and ascend into heaven. We had a great time!

This morning, Good Friday, we woke up and began baking our cross cake. One of the best parts of making cake is licking the batter!

All gone!!

We chose to make a vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream to resemble the color of the wooden cross. The last time I baked this cake was 5.5 years ago when Jason turned 30. It bombed! It was a beautiful cake but it was SO dry. I have refused to try it again until today. It turned out great! We even put sprinkles in the batter. Why? Because they are fun and because we'll never use up all of the ones we have before moving to Germany! Jackson decorated the outside with flower sprinkles. Originally, we were going to put real flowers on the cake, but I chose the more practical route since we had such an abundance of sprinkles.

I chose John 19:30 as the verse I wanted to write near the cake. Our Lord finished the will of the Father and paid our debt in FULL!!

Jackson asked me to write the verse in purple crayon. I love the shadowing around the cross. I used a roll of white paper to cover a large cookie sheet. The shadow is from the paper absorbing all of the butter that is in the cake!

Picking off sprinkles is the best part!

I guarantee my dad enjoyed his piece(s)!! :-))

Rather than eat any cake, Jackson decided to pick off some sprinkles and then have a popsicle! I couldn't believe he didn't want to eat the cake. I think it was the chocolate icing. Sorry, Jacks! That is daddy's favorite on yellow cake!

Yum!

Tonight, we get to go to church and hear our pastor demonstrate and explain the elements in a traditional Seder meal. Then, we'll have a Good Friday worship and communion service. I have been looking forward to this night all week long!

I hope you know that Christ's death was powerful to wash even the filthiest of sinners. There is no one that is too hopeless for Him. He came to save because we needed saving!