what's today?

So, it's been a lot about the homemaking and not as much about the church year here recently. At least, that's what I thought. But, then again, it's Easter! This is the time of year for doing everything normal, but with glad and light hearts. There aren't a whole lot of saints' days on the calendar in April, the better, it seems to me, to focus on Christ's resurrection.

All the gardening, and the flowers and the good food and the trips to the mountain seem light, and free, and full of alleluias. We didn't say "alleluia" all Lent, but now's the time to say it every day. To look at all the good things in everyday life, and to praise God for them, because but for his love towards us, we wouldn't have any of them. And even if we did, we couldn't enjoy them, because the weight of our sins would hang over it all like a gloomy cloud.

But with a heavenly Father who has loved us, loves us, and always will love us, you can enjoy things like ice cream. I don't mean this flippantly: but having eternity taken care of kind of frees you up to live in the present. It takes away worry. (And I say this as a world-class worrier: anxiety is my besetting sin. That's, um, why I've pondered how the promise of eternal life affects anxiety levels. Because I've had to.) It sounds flippant to say, "Because Christ conquered death, I can enjoy the pretty roses in my garden," but it's true. It's perhaps one of the least important true things, but it is true. It's true the same way it's true that my two year old can enjoy playing with her dolls because she's not worried about how to pay rent. She knows her parents, and that her parents will take care of her, and that frees her to live her ordinary, good, normal life.

So, I guess the past week or so, what "homemaking through the church year" has meant to me is that I can cook and garden and clean and be with my family with a lighter, more joyful heart, because the truth of Christ's victory over death has been in the forefront of my mind.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica