OK. Y’all are gonna think I’m nuts, but let’s be honest, that wouldn’t be anything new. Please don’t think that I am weird-er than you already think I am, but I just got the best e-mail. This e-mail made my soul rejoice! Seriously. An I-want-to-do-a-happy-dance rejoicing.
What was this mysterious e-mail and who sent it? This is the part where y’all will think that I am weird. It was from Robyn and it was about Holy Week 2011.
Yes, Peeps, that is right, an email about Holy Week made me want to do a happy dance. You see, I get excited about Holy Week the way children get excited about Christmas. And I am not exaggerating.
Over the last few years, I have been enormously blessed beyond words that my dear, sweet friend, Robyn loves the Easter season as much as I do, and it’s become quite a tradition for us to plan out our Holy Week by service hopping. We go all out. I’m talking Maundy Thursday service, Good Friday services (plural – meaning more than one), and a Saturday viewing of the Passion of the Christ (Robyn sits this one out, but it is a tradition for me to weep uncontrollably as the cruxifiction unfolds). All these services culminate in an Easter blow-out celebration at church where my heart is full and my soul is glad.
Last year, our bible study girls came along with us as we service hopped the week away. As we were planning the activities last year, Robyn threw out, unbeknownst to her, a challenge when she said that the most wonderful Easter she could remember was a time when her pastor wrote a day-by-day devotion for Holy Week. Now, I’m no pastor, but I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than writing down my reflections as the week progressed. Over the course of holy week, I sent out an e-mail devotion. This year, I’ll share those same reflections on the blog starting on Palm Sunday.
My prayer is that God will use these reflections to show you His unimaginable love for you and that you might catch a glimpse of His Glory!
“I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” – Isaiah 61:10
Lillian
Amen! Christ is risen!
Robyn
This is, by far, my favorite week of the year! As I mentioned in my email, and very similar to your sentiments, meditating on, and remembering, the events leading up to His resurrection has made Easter morning one million times better than Christmas morning when I was five!
Observing the valleys makes that Easter morning mountain top so much sweeter.
HE IS RISEN! 🙂
Anonymous
He is risen indeed!