Up from the grave: Easter, baptism and poison sausages

 

I've been catching up on my blog reading and I'm feeling a bit under the pile as I see mom's posting their amazing Easter pictures.  Their kids have on beautiful dresses and adorable bows in their hair.  There are pics of Easter Egg hunts and family dinners.

 

Our Easter ended up a bit less than traditional this year.  It all started when Olivia decided to be baptized on Easter Sunday.  Our church does a *believer's baptism* which is a public declaration of one's own decision to follow after Jesus as Lord and Savior.  O has been wrestling with this decision for about a year now.  Normally, the person being baptized makes a short video that is shown to the church before the actual baptism.  The idea of making a video has held her back.  When she heard that on Easter is was going to be a bit more casual and "spontaneous" (i.e. no video) she jumped on that idea.

 

Because the baptisms were at the end of the service, we were told she should wear dark gym clothes to the service so she would be ready to go for the baptism (we've got the full dunk situation at our church.)  Well... that put a turn of events on the old Easter dress.  And if she didn't have to dress up, I just knew the boys would protest dressing up.  So... I got to thinking...

 

What if we did a little family baptism t-shirt.  One of the ways we had explained baptism to the kids was a sport jersey analogy.  (Perhaps the first ever sport analogy ever from me... perhaps the last.)  We explained that when you put your faith in Jesus as your Savior, you join his team.  When you get baptized, it's like putting on His jersey so that everyone knows you're on His team.  I made t-shirts for everyone in our family to wear that morning.  TEAM JESUS t-shirts.  The kids' who have not been baptized wore gray, Steve and I (having already been baptized) wore white.  O was baptized in a gray shirt and when she got dressed after being dunked, she changed into white.  When/if the boys decide to be baptized, I imagine doing the same thing for them.  Clever, right?  It also gave me an out for shopping for Easter outfits!  Double clever, right?!

 

Well.... my idea was to have some really cute pictures taken before/after the baptism.  But then *IT* happened.

 

Enter, the poison sausage. 

 

The night before Easter, we went as a family to the farm league baseball game in town.  I ate a poison sausage.  I will spare you the gory details, but I'll just say I have not been that sick since, umm, maybe ever.  And in the middle of the night, when I was praying for the Lord to take me home, right there on the toilet, I realized, I HAD to be in Church the next morning.  My baby girl was getting baptized, 30 friends were coming for cake after, AND I HAD to be there to wear my white TEAM JESUS t-shirt for it all to make sense.  (Priorities!)

 

God graciously gave me a 2 hour reprieve.  I made it to church.  Didn't barf on anyone.  I also did not take any cute pictures.  I barely managed to stand upright and I sadly didn't get to taste the beautiful cake.  I ran home (literally) and crawled in bed for the next day as my family went to our friends' house for dinner and an egg hunt.  I was so sad and so disappointed. 

 



 

Yet so unbelievably proud of my sweet 8 year old daughter.  She is a beauty inside and out.  It is a privilege to be her mom.  Easter is such an amazing celebration of new life and although I wanted to die that day, it took on an even richer meaning watching my daughter accept her team jersey.  Who knows what life will bring her way, what sweet cake and poison sausages await her.  With either one, I will trust the Lord to keep her close!  What a special Easter that I won't EVER forget.