I grew up in church and pretty much if the doors were open, I was there. I’ve had more potlucks than homework assignments and sat in more pews and sang more verses of “Just As I Am” than a Fitbit can count. I remember my dad telling people he had a drug problem growing up. He would say his parents’ drug him to church all the time. Obviously, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
My parents were always doing things at church from cooking, cleaning, building, teaching, praying, crying, laughing and so much more. I have to admit, as a kid, I resented some of those times. I wasn’t able to do things other kids were doing because we had to go to church. However, as we grow older, we change and so does our perspective and I am no exception.
Although some of those times seemed unimportant to me, I didn’t really understand how important they were. When I look back at growing up and spending all that time at church, I now see all the things that came it. I see how my family made lifelong friends. I saw how people’s lives change from a life of desperation to a life of hope. I saw families grow, hearts mended, friendships restored, marriages healed, kids loving their parents and parents pouring into the kids. But most of all, I saw lives change for eternity.
This Easter will be different than any other Easter I have seen. I’ve been to sunrise services, multiple services, a single service, outdoor services, indoor services and what seemed like an all-day service, but I’ve never watched an Easter service from home. Indeed, it will be different this year.
However, just because we won’t be all together, it doesn’t make it any less important. Celebrate Easter this year with your family in your own home. Although we can’t be together, we can watch our service live and join in with others from church. We can still praise Him, say amen, shout hallelujah and sing as loud as we want!
And while we do all of this, take time and remember the price our Savior paid so that we can live with a future and hope. Share the good news of Jesus Christ with your family. Jesus is Risen and is worthy of all praise. Glory to His Name.
I, like many others, look forward to the day we can be together again. I miss my church, my 2nd home.
To God be all glory! Go God Go!