A long time Ago...

A long time ago, back when I was just a young teenager living abroad attending Church College New Zealand, I heard the most incredible song. A song that stirred my soul to its very depths.

It was a song that sung of a Mother and her son. A son who was also the mothers King. Eventually it sings of the mother kneeling by the cross of that very king. 

So on this beautiful Easter Sunday, I share with you the most amazing song {click on the title below}. This is the original artist singing, and I won't lie, it's not quite the same as my Incredibly talented New Zealander friends version :) but it doesn't change the beauty or the significance of the words. 

A Long Time Ago

A long time ago, a mother lay by the side of a tiny King
The wisemen would come, the shepherds kneel,
And the angels in heav'n would sing:
Hosannah! Alleluia! For unto you this night,
A babe is born upon the earth to bring the world His light.

A long time ago, a perfect man walked the shores of Galilee
He taught men of faith, to forgive, to love,
And bade them, 'Come unto me.'
Hosannah! Alleluia! How great were all His days,
For He had come to show to all the strait and narrow way.

A long time ago a mother knelt by the cross of the chosen King
The soldiers were there, men mocked His throne
And the angels wept at the scene.
Hosannah! Alleluia! How much He must have cared
For all our sins He took upon, then hung and suffered there.

And not long ago a mother knelt by the side of her child each night
She taught her to pray, to worship God, and to follow the Saviour's light.
Hosannah! Alleluia! Now when each day is through,
The love I have for Him above, I'll teach my child...to you.

Gethsemane

Golgotha

The Garden Tomb

He is not here. He is Risen!

Day 7 - Easter bits and pieces

Delicious cupcakes made and shared with lovely neighbours.....

Good Friday visit to the temple {my favourite Easter tradition}! I LOVE this more every year!!!

Traditional Easter egg painting - and yes, Chad is painting a circle here not an egg :) For some reason the rest of Sydney decided to buy all of the foam eggs before I could make our purchases this year, so it was either circles, or real eggs. We went with the circles which worked out perfect for Chads art :)

As for the kids, they didn't even really notice :)

Some members of the family prefer to paint minus half their clothes. It does make the clean up much easier........

......especially for a little girl that after about 10 minutes, had paint everywhere :)

We had our annual last supper (which reminded me of our trip to the middle east. sigh :)

We spent Easter Saturday picnic-ing, apple picking and photo snapping with family. It was a beautiful day of perfect weather!

I lost count of how many apples Lily ate while the rest of us picked :)

Jasmin attempting to get the nicer apples that were a little higher :) her squeals of delight were like music to my ears!

My babies have no idea how lucky they are that this man is their dad!!

 My double digits boy who is growing much too fast

and delicious food made with said picked apples!!

The Easter bunny visited our back yard, and as a result, Jasmin has prayed for him everyday since. He must be a very blessed bunny by now :)

Oh and we started renovating......

But much more about that later!!!!

Reflection

While Easter has always been my favourite time of year, it seems to have taken on even more meaning for me after our trip to the Middle East last year. Walking in the places where the events of the Atonement took place have left deep almost tangible feelings impressed on me. I know you don't need to walk in these places to have feelings like this, but there is an undeniable feeling of sacredness as you walk in the footsteps of the Savior.

It was hard to hold back tears as we shared pictures and stories with our kids and reflected on our time in the Holy Land. While I say Easter has taken on even more meaning, the experiences we had in Jerusalem didn't actually change what I believe. They didn't make me suddenly realise that the Atonement happened. I already knew that. Without doubt. I guess what our trip did do, was open up the mysterious world of the Middle East and where the Savior lived. The smells, the sounds, the people, the Old City.


What an incredible powerful feeling is felt when you walk in Holy places!

While the garden tomb shown below is not the only candidate for the place where the Savior was laid, It's hard to imagine that it could be anywhere else. The thought that kept coming to me while we were there was this; It doesn't matter so much where it happened. What matters is that It happened.

He is not here He is Risen!

6 months on from our trip, I still think about the experiences we had in the Middle East every day and the impact they had on me.

I love going through the The last week of the Saviors life at Easter time! We see that as we try to place importance on the things that matter most, the Easter Bunny becomes secondary, and not the focus of this special reflective season.

Here are some beautiful touching small video clips of the Saviors last days and his resurrection that are suitable to be shared with all ages.

And this beautiful song with pictures is one that we listen to and watch every Easter. It is perfect for small children to help them see and feel something special. 

Whatever your traditions are, we hope you had a lovely Easter!

**Some of the pictures above were taken by my incredibly talented Sister'n'law Alana who was also on the trip!!

Easter Preparation

Evidence that my favourite time of year is upon us.....

Easter Wrap up

OK I know that Easter was a whole month ago now........but here's a few more pics to sum up what we did......

we park played and explored. A lot.

 had our traditional last supper (with a few modern conveniences :)

Jazzy tried to eat EVERY egg she could get her little hands on......even the foam ones we had on our display

 (if you look closely you can see the bites out of the egg below :)

we played some more......

 bought a couple of chickens HERE as part of our Easter service (then did the chicken dance when we'd finished :)

 

made some oil lamps with our family (mum, dad, Zar and ligits) to go with our lesson on the parables of Jesus......

the 'little' kids lamps

these were the 'big kids' ones (love my mums detailed little 'pot')

had an early morning Easter egg hunt (love those sleepy little faces :)

watched Jasmin DELIGHT in the world of finding and consuming chocolate eggs :)

pulled apart furniture in order to find those eggs (it was raining outside so the hunt was brought in doors :)

and spent lots of time with our family!

We loved Easter Weekend and HOPE that next year Chad-dad will be here :)!!