Happy Easter!

I love Easter. I love the colors, and the bunnies, and the baskets, and the eggs.  Apparently Addison does too.

this was right before leaving for our first egg "hunt" yesterday - we just gave Addie the eggs

"look what the Easter bunny left me!"

what is she trying to convey here?  what a funny face!

You always hear that "there's nothing like being a Mom."  I used to think "duh stupid."  Like, I knew that it would be like nothing else, and that I couldn't imagine what it would be like before I had a kid myself, but it just seemed like such an obvious statement.  Now I actually think that obvious statement!  I don't say it to my friends, but I think it to myself, and am overcome with what a blessing it is just to experience the role of motherhood.  I love every new face (like the sneaky one above) and noise she makes.  I can't wait until she can tell me what she's saying.
Today is Easter.  I was explaining what we celebrate to Addison this morning - that we celebrate a risen Lord - and she seemed very interested. 

this is the cross that's put up in front of our church every year on Palm Sunday.  Throughout Holy Week it bears a black cloth, and on Easter morning there's a purple robe draped around it, and people bring flowers to put all around it. 

Addison may not be able to hunt eggs yet, but she likes to hold the little empty plastic kind and bang them together.  Today she was trying to crawl and walk all around in her long, fancy Easter dress and kept getting tangled up - the above picture was right after a frustrating moment.

What a daddy's girl, huh?  Well, looks can be deceiving.  Lately she wants to go from one of us to the other and back.  I don't know if she's finally really getting to that clingy stage that most babies get, or if she is cutting another tooth, or what.  I kept the nursery today during one of our services and she was only happy if I was holding her!  Addison sees me hold and play with other babies all the time, but today she wasn't having any of that.  Brad, and later his dad, stopped in our class today, and she cried when both tried to pick her up.  What's up with that???
I hope that you had a chance to hear the Gospel today.  I hope that it convicted you and reminded you of the purpose behind the death and resurrection of our sweet Lord.  I've always believed that hearing the Gospel will draw people to Jesus.  I heard David Platt, author of Radical and pastor at The Church of Brook Hills in Birmingham, during a Secret Church simulcast on Friday.  He specifically argued against that idea - he said that the Gospel should make us run scared because of the life that being a Believer and Follower calls us to.  (I'm paraphrasing.)  While I understand that intellectually, emotionally I still like that metaphor that we're all created with a God-shaped hole that can only be filled with Christ.
By the way, if you want a challenging, difficult, possibly life-changing read, check out Platt's book.  I'm reading and it's putting a whole new spin - based entirely on Scripture - on things.

Happy Easter.