I remember . . .

Some of my best childhood memories are from Easter time. It was always a big deal, the week previous to Easter Sunday, to go out with my Mom and shop together for our Easter ‘outfit’. That meant a dress (the frillier the better!), a pair of shoes and with purse to match, and of course, a hat and gloves. I don’t recall it being a time to try to ‘out-shine’ or ‘out-do’ the other girls at church with my outfit, but, I remember it as special time that we put our new spring outfit and went to church to celebrate Easter Sunday with the rest of our church family, to laugh and have good time hunting Easter eggs in our backyard, and, of course, eating together as a family a delicious ham with all the trimming. As a child, it meant that it was time to put away the coats and winter clothes and bring out the colorful, light-weight summer clothes – it meant that school was just about over and summer vacation was just about to begin!

As I grew older, I remember more of the Easter services with those wonderful ‘live’ re-creations of the Crucifixion story and taking Communion at the end of the service, by the light of candles. For me, it was always a stirring and emotional time to see and feel what Jesus went through for my salvation.

Now that I am much older  .  .  I fully understand everything in my life that I hold dear, I have because of what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross that Friday AND on that spectacular Sunday that He rose from the grave! I comprehend  the completeness of what it means to serve a RISEN SAVIOR who has made available to me a fresh, clean, new beginning to this life and a sure promise of a 'next life' that is beyond this world! I’m looking forward to that time when I meet Him face to face.

Face to face with Christ, my Savior,
Face to face—what will it be?
When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ who died for me.

Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by!

Only faintly now, I see Him,
With the darkling veil between,
But a blessed day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen.

What rejoicing in His presence,
When are banished grief and pain;
When the crooked ways are straightened,
And the dark things shall be plain.

Face to face! O blissful moment!
Face to face—to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ who loves me so.