Last Easter morning, I heard the swirl of fast little feet as my children bounded downstairs and began negotiating who could open the oven door. Their voices were more rushed than their average groggy morning—filled with anticipation of something exciting.
Sister opened the door to see a cookie sheet with a dozen white fluffy blobs on it. Our Resurrection Cookies—a meringue cookie that rises overnight. Brother reached in to grab two (one for sister, of course), promptly bit into it, and found it hollow. This is when I grabbed a Bible and read a few verses about the empty tomb.
My favorite part of this new tradition was witnessing my kids’ anticipation. If I approach Easter Sunday like my children approached the oven, I think I would be fully honoring the truth Easter holds—our salvation is here, and the best is yet to come.
In Tennessee, Eastertime is when the world around us is anticipating the best. Our hills and flowerbeds are budding, pregnant with proof that something good and beautiful is coming after winter.
Eastertime is also when our Southern closets are filled with matching outfits, new white socks, and updated church shoes—a tradition of anticipation for a worship service that deserves our very best.
These organic and traditional rhythms of Easter are ways to honor the highest truth I know: The battle has been won, your King is on the throne, and we can anticipate complete peace with Him when our race is done.
At GraceWorks, we join neighbors when their life doesn’t feel so peaceful. And while it is incredible to witness the relief our programs can bring, this relief is merely a flower bud—a symbol for the complete beauty yet to come. I pray any relief found at GraceWorks leaves neighbors with a craving for more. I pray after they leave GraceWorks they run to the Father like my kids ran downstairs to open the oven, finding the open tomb prepared just for them.
As we prepare for Easter, I invite you to enter a posture of anticipation. Here are some ways you can ignite anticipation with GraceWorks:
- Schedule a meal and thrifting trip with a friend. Anticipate the fellowship and thrift finds!
- Donate your kids’ outgrown church shoes while you’re spring cleaning. Anticipate the joy of those shoes being worn on some other little feet this Easter.
- If you want a new get-up for Easter Sunday, come shop with us! Anticipate the compliments you’ll get, and take a few seconds to tell them you got it at GraceWorks.
- Plant flowers and pray for who you might give them to when they bloom. Anticipate their joy!
- Use the Resurrection Cookie recipe I used with my children. It includes Bible lessons during the baking that draw them into the Easter story.
May you carry the joy of knowing your Intercessor is on the throne granting grace.
—Alicia