Easter {in Heaven}

 

Our family celebrated Easter quietly this year.

We attended church, rejoicing over the simple yet powerful songs that told the story of the resurrection of Christ.

We came home from church and enjoyed a roast that had been in the crockpot overnight. Adding in simple veggies, our meal was completed.

The kids hunted eggs at church and then again once more this afternoon when we got to grandma’s house for a few minutes. We didn’t do “Easter Baskets” this year. We don’t do them very often, so the kids don’t hold that expectation. Instead, we reuse the same plastic eggs and colored plastic buckets each year, filling them with whatever I round up.

As we pulled the 5 buckets from the shelf, we were reminded that only two kids wanted to hunt now. When we got to the pink bucket, Little Man reminded me that one belonged to Millie.

 

 

I told him that I remembered.

I’m grateful that she’s not forgotten, yet everywhere we look her absence is profound.

After lunch we headed to the cemetery to decorate her grave. I had put it off until we could go together. Every single time daddy and I think and then say the same thing,

 

“We sure miss you baby girl”.

 

Little man took a single egg and laid it in the grass by her headstone, saying, “I gave Millie an egg for Easter”. His smile both brings me joy and stabs my heart because he loved her so much. He shouldn’t be taking an egg to a cemetery as a gift for his beloved baby sister. That’s a lot to expect of an 8-year-old brother who will grow up without his best friend.

Thinking about this day, I’m also reminded of Easter Sunday morning two years ago as she came home from the hospital, running up on the porch, and announcing, “I came back mama!” That thought always makes me smile. Oh, how I would love to hear that from her mouth again.

 

Instead, someday I will tell her, “I have arrived baby girl”.

That’s the promise of Jesus. Eternal life with the Father and our loved ones.