Sunday Flashback

Sundays on Sabbatical still produce a feeling of "lostness" for me. When you're used to years of your whole week coming down to what happens on Sunday and then that's gone it takes some adjustment. Compound that with being gone on Easter, which is the biggest Sunday of our year, and it's kind of surreal.

Even though we're home now, I've resolved to visit other churches on these Sundays to gain some perspective as a guest and to pick up some good ideas when I can. So yesterday we visited a young local church trying to carve out their "niche" in our community. I'll say this much: it was different. And all the while we were both wishing we were at home at NHC because it is home.

Sometime after the Sabbatical is over and we have worshipped in 12 or so different churches from FL to CA to NC I'll write some of the lessons I learned.

Sunday afternoon we had a crowd over, including our grandchildren, their parents, my brother's family, Gail's mom, and our grandkids' other grandparents and an aunt, and some more friends. We've been working hard the past few days on our yard (it's been sadly neglected for too long) getting the deck ship-shape and the front yard ready for an Easter egg hunt.

This year's (and future years') hunt is different from the big hunts we hosted a few years ago when our kids were all college aged. We'd invite their friends; make them all wear bunny ears and sent them out into the yard and woods behind the house searching for eggs. One of the eggs always was loaded with cash, so they were pretty motivated. It was always a lot of fun watching grown up kids get excited about hunting Easter eggs. Lots of craziness.

Now we're hosting mostly toddlers. Cuteness reigns, but not as funny or crazy as before.

The food on the deck was awesome. God gave us a picture perfect day, too, with warm temps and a Carolina Blue sky. On special days like Easter, which speak so much of the faith we have in Christ that holds us together it is also like icing on the cake to have so much fun with family and friends. And we're grateful to be blessed with a home that makes it possible. The older I get the more I get it.