Today is Easter Sunday. What a difference a year makes. The story is still the same; the grave is empty and remains empty over 2000 years later. Jesus ROSE from the dead!! He is ALIVE! He conquered death and so much more.
Last Easter we were just a few short weeks into "2 weeks to flatten the curve" that turned out to be false because my state ended up being closed for close to 2 months before it started slowly reopening. As a matter of fact our governor lifted all restrictions and mask mandates just a few short weeks ago; just over a year since he had made all those executive orders.
Last Easter we watched online services for our church. In fact because there was nothing else really to do and nowhere else to go, I watched three other Easter services from churches we had attended in the past. We brought in take out food for our lunch from a local restaurant. We made potato salad and took some over to son/family for them to enjoy for their Easter meal. We stopped on the way to get donuts for the grand kids. The wee one as I call him though he is now 5 years old and certainly not wee any more, wanted desperately to come and hug us and spend time with us but of course we were so scared then about catching something that we discouraged it. Basically dropped the salad and donuts off and went on our way, being outside and no physical contact other than passing the box of donuts over and the bowl of potato salad.
This year totally different. Really almost back to normal; not even the new normal. I learned a lot in this past year about things and while I know for sure Covid is a serious illness there are lots of mistruths about it and a lot of people living in fear. I stopped living in fear in May of 2020 and we started seeing son/family again often and always hugged at the end of our visits. All of us remain healthy and I continue to think we will continue to remain healthy. I THANK God often for the shield of protection He has put around our family that we have been spared sickness or financial hardship during this pandemic.
We went to church. In person service! We had been doing that since last August, even changing churches when our previous one hadn't reopened yet. The online experience was not working for us even though it was tastefully done and the sermons were good ones. I need to be in a church with fellow believers. I need to hear the sermon in person. That is what I need and may not be what you need and I respect that. Wonders of wonders in the 9 months since we started going back to in person services, first requiring a mask, then the mask mandate lifted, there has been no outbreak of Covid in the congregation and again we remain healthy.
Our church was packed this morning. Not overflowing packed but let's just say people were not able to socially distance because there were so many people there. It was wonderful to see the baptisms at the end of the service, 15 people being baptized. It was a great message called Hope Revived, a case study about Peter and his journey of faith and belief in Jesus.
We went out for brunch and the restaurant was busy! Like I mentioned above the governor had lifted restrictions and occupancy limits a few weeks back. It was nice to see people out celebrating and enjoying a delicious meal.
The only bad thing about today is our mayor, who closed the city parks last year for Easter weekend as she didn't want large groups gathering, decided to close the park parking lots this weekend to again avoid large group gatherings. She even closed some city streets for parking around popular parks. Even the parking lot at the dog park was closed. All had barricades. If there was street parking and it wasn't closed, you could park and go into the parks. Otherwise, nope, not allowed here in Phoenix. I think this was in retaliation of our governor lifting the mask mandates. She was livid about that when it happened. Most stores and other businesses still require masks and that is what the governor said could happen. If they wanted to keep that requirement, fine, otherwise he was lifting the mandate. Our governor and our mayor are of two different political parties. I will let you figure out which ones they belong to.
Best thing about today is the best thing from yesterday and the day before and the day before that and the week before that and the month before that and the year before that and the decade before that and the century before that and you get the general idea.
Jesus is risen!
