Easter Weekend

Allan, Kristi (& baby), Trinity & Connor, Easter, 2006

We had a nice Easter weekend. It started on Friday evening with a Passover celebration with several of our good friends. It was a really lovely event - and peaceful with no kids! There were several aspects of the night's rituals which particularly touched me. Tasting the bitter herbs reminds us, not subtlely, of our sin and utter hopelessness before being freed from captivity. Eating the lamb was a very touching communion moment for me; there was so much power in the symbolism. Examining the events that surrounded the initiation of our current communion service was also an important message for me to experience. Jesus' offer of the cup of wine symbolizes his proposal of marriage to his followers, as per the custom of a man offering his potential bride a cup of wine as a proposal covenant.

I wish we as a culture had more profound rituals such as this to commemorate our important events. Allan brought up a great point that evening...because we are a young country, made up of people groups and cultures from all over the world, the great rituals that others experience in their home countries have been lost, watered-down, in our great melting pot. Therefore, we have no one set of rituals, rich with meaning and heritage, to mark our important life events. That leaves it up to us as smaller groups - families, churches and groups of friends - to implement and teach new (or old) rituals for the next generation. I think that is a fun assignment to pursue!

Easter day was nice, full of good food (non kosher, to say the least) and egg hunts in the wet grass with lots of family around (more Easter photos). Hope you had a good Easter weekend as well!