Easter joy & celebration

"Hill of Calvary" from the Chow family

My friend Sandie shared from Kathleen Norris' "God For Us":

"We thank & praise you Lord, for the gift of your victory over death, for the gift of holy awe that comes upon us as we enter into our Easter joy. Christ has passed from death to life, may we always know you as our way through the desert, our food & drink as we thirst. You are our safe passage through treacherous waters & the home that awaits us at the end of all our journeys. In our doubts & in the pressures of our busy lives, we seem to lose you. Help us remember that you are always with us & that your way is always before us; we have only to pay attention to hear you call us by name. Teach us to recognize you in one another and with deep gratitude continue to bear witness to the life & hope with which you sustain the world. Amen." 

What a meaningful prayer to reflect on over the Easter weekend!

I thank our Lord for being our safe passage through the treacherous waters. For being our calm, our peace and our home. For strengthening and sustaining us as the fear of failed treatments, death and loss stared back at us. For his perfect timing. And for illuminating the past year as something to be thankful for - in those moments where we were tempted to ask where God was in our pain, we now see His overarching goodness and faithfulness.

And I thank God for all the amazing people in town who prayed for us, drove us to appointments, cooked for us, etc. We celebrated "no more chemo" and our  community with a brunch this past Saturday . It was really special to celebrate hope, good health, and awesome family and friends during a holiday that signified the ultimate love, hope and good-conquering-evil.

While not everyone could make it, we still had over 100 people come through our home over a span of 4 hours. We have been so blessed by amazing loving people. We prepared:

Driz, my pancake flipper extraordinaire

The very patient Alicia, who scrambled all the eggs with a tiny pan!

10 dozen eggs

10 kg of sausages

180 pancakes

7 lbs of pulled pork

A cauldron of fruit salad

20 lbs of berries

3 "maui loaves"

80 palmiers

10 L of lilikoi juice

6 L of Kona coffee

88 bars of handmade soap

140 cookies from Honolulu Cookie Co.

And while we were braced for utter chaos, and introverted Jer was half-joking that he's end up in the fetal position in our bedroom, it was a good and blessed time. We got to catch up a little with all these people whose generosity has blessed us in our time of need.

It looked like Spring had exploded in our home, despite the dreary rain outside!

At the end of

the anguish, pain and darkness of Good Friday

and the darkness of an imperfect and fallen world

comes the rejoicing of Easter Sunday...

the risen Lord and the God who meets us in our pain

and reminds us that we do not need to struggle through alone.

He is risen. He is risen indeed.