HE IS RISEN

Long, long ago; me the chubby one on the left, my sweet Aunt Kathrine  in her pink prom dress and my sister Stella on the right, both of us in our matching blue organdy lace Easter dresses wearing our white patent leather shoes. This was taken at my Grandma Wright's house back in the 50's. We had to dress and pose for this picture, be still and not blink waiting for the bright flash to blind us. Picture taking has changed a lot since then.

 I remember the bright floral curtains and I can almost smell the Old English Furniture Polish. A speck of dust never found time to dwell at her house.

Little Girls and Lace

Long ago Easter meant getting a pretty new dress from the Sears Catalogue. My earliest memory, other than chocolate rabbits and Easter baskets filled with divine goodies was sitting down with the catalogue to pick out our Easter dresses. It was the only time of the year that we ever got a frilly dress. Usually our clothes were made from cotton flour sacks. Mama always bought flour in 25 pound sacks. I remember we ate a lot of biscuits and gravy, or sometimes biscuits and syrup but what ever the meal there were biscuits and or corn bread. Those old flour sacks were pretty, just like the material you buy now days. Some of the very old quilts are made with these flour sack cotton prints. As we grew, it would take two sacks to make a dress, or even three, depending on how flared the skirt, so we had to save up sacks. My favorite, I remember to this day was a green plaid with a flared skirt that mama trimmed in rickrack.

Getting anything from the catalog was fun but the Easter dress was really special. I remember sitting for hours, turning pages and day-dreaming of owning the clothes in that book. All the pretty spring dresses of pastel colors made it hard to choose. In the end mama always did the choosing. One thing was for sure it would be made of organdy and have ruffles and lace. Back then little girls were all about ribbons, ruffles and bows. Things sure have changed a lot and it is something we seldom see now days. We always got white patent leather shoes, white lace trimmed socks and sometimes, white lace gloves. That was about as close as you could come to feeling like a real princess.

The day before Easter we went to “Bannie’s” house; that is what we called Grandma Wright, our mother’s mother. Dyeing Easter eggs was something everyone did, children and grown-ups. There would be dozens and dozens and dozens, everyone squealing with pleasure and exclaiming, “Oh look at this one!” I don’t know what Bannie used for dye but the egg colors were brilliant. For supper we ate the cracked eggs and there was always plenty.

Early Easter morning my Aunt Kathrine (Kat) and Uncle Melvin would hide all the eggs in the big pasture behind the house. After church we all gathered there for a big dinner with lots of delicious food. We kids were too excited to eat and already full of candy. We were ready to go to the big pasture; there were treasures to be found, Easter eggs were hidden over what would be at least two football fields in size. Oh to have a smidgeon of the energy that I had back then. “Youth is wasted on the young”. (I truly know what that means now!) The grown-ups were out there too having just as much fun as we were. We hunted until dark, but we never found all the eggs, we hunted for weeks after Easter, up into the summer. Of course the eggs were rotten by now but what a thrill to yell, “I found one”, long after Easter and then toss it far into the woods.

Though these things make for beautiful memories that spring forth to an old woman's heart as if it were yesterday, it's not all about little girls and lace, nor is it about chocolate rabbits and baskets full of candy and pretty colored eggs. All these things make fond memories but do not even begin to compare to the message that He is risen.

HE IS RISEN

By: Lillian Carol Russell

Think of how our Savior died,

A shameful death and stripped of pride.


He carried the cross that was His own,

Until He stumbled, His strength all gone.


They scorned Him and cursed Him and someone said,

A crown should be placed upon His head.


It was fashioned of thorns, sharp to prick the skin,

And the blood flowed down His face where they stuck in.


They placed spikes through His feet then drove them through each hand,

His body nailed firm, the cross was raised on Golgotha’s Hill to stand.


My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken me He cried,

Then taking with Him all our sin, He gave up the Spirit and died.


He hung on that cross, rejected and alone,

Taking with Him every sin, but none that were His own.


To the tomb they went to anoint Him early in the day,

They found that he had risen, the stone was rolled away.


Praise God for Jesus who rose again,

Defeated sin and death and with the Father now does reign.


Praise God for saving grace,

For Jesus who died for sin in my place.



John, 11. 25 …I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.