Stop and Breathe

  It's been a busy week in the Zwemke home.  Planning for a birthday party, planning and practicing music for the Resurrection Sunday service, and of course planning and preparing food for all these events as well.  My eyes are blurry from all the frantic commotion.  I have been deep in task mode for more than 48 hours, and my heart feels the weight of it.
  This evening, the evidence of a successful party is scattered all throughout the house, and the music for tomorrow is floating in the air.  I had a cup of tea, and sang my songs, and now I am realizing that I have hardly taken more than 5 minutes to think and meditate on the glorious work Christ has done by paying the penalty of my great sin, and how He arose and sits victorious at the right hand of God, awaiting His perfect timing to return and claim His own.
   Our tradition this time of year is to build a tomb of sorts, and place a doll, or something signifying Jesus, wrapped in a cloth inside, and then roll a "stone" in front of the tomb.  In the morning, before going to the Resurrection Sunday service, we enact the women arriving at the tomb to find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty.  We usually leave some Easter baskets with gifts for the girls inside the tomb, where there is a sign reading "He is Risen!"  It's a wonderful tradition, and the girls truly look forward to it, but in all my busy-ness, I forgot to get presents...and there was no energy left to think about the tomb.  I sat on the couch, begging the girls to let it go this year. 
  It is at moments like these that I am reminded that Mom doesn't have to do it all alone.  Ryan and the girls busily worked to make a tomb, and by the judgment of the 8yro, "It's the best tomb, ever!"  Then, I had to admit that I didn't get them any presents...only to find moments later, the 12yro stealing the baskets from my closet for "a surprise." I am looking forward to what she will do, and my heart is touched by her generosity, and care.
  Grace...grace is what is needed in my heart tonight.  I am sad, that I have grown weary with all the work to make times special.  What I truly need is to stop, breathe, and meditate on the grace of Jesus, unbounded, and free.  Grace that is greater than all my sin.  I am thankful, that I have teammates, working with me to make memories for the younger ones.  I desire for God to strengthen me tonight, so that tomorrow I will not just check off the rest of my to-do list, but will have the eyes to see past it, to the eternal, lasting things of God.