Easter Sunday Blessings, Hawai'i style
1. Jesus is risen! Alleluia!
2. Celebrating Christ's resurrection on a beach at sunrise.
3. Celebrating Christ's resurrection with beautiful hand gestures in a hula dance.
4. Celebrating Christ's resurrection with white birds flying up in flocks behind the speaker.
5. The witness and ministry of the Waikiki Beach Chapel, a co-mission involving four different churches of different denominations.
6. Hearing God's word.
And on a different, more travel adventure note:
7. First time at an Easter service wearing a swimsuit under my dress.
8. First time my kids have built a sand valley while listening to a pastor speak.
9. First time after worship, we've gone to swim with sharks . . . not sure it was a fitting Easter day celebration but it was our only day available to go. And it was fun, and amazing! Not scary at all. And we didn't get seasick . . .not sure why so many people do.
10. One of our shark crewmen wore white today in honor of Easter.
11. A lady in a convenience store was listening to her worship service in the store, and wearing her best clothes to work . . . in honor of Christ's resurrection.
12. Many, many people celebrated Easter on O'ahu.
13. Saw huge sea turtles on the beach, both in and out of the water.
14. Went boogie boarding and body surfing on a different beach.
15. Saw a dark shape in the water behind me while body surfing . . . jumped three feet, and then realized that another sea turtle was "body-surfing" next to us. Wow!
16. Feeling as if the day has been well spent.
Scripture Blessings:
"After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.'"
Matthew 28:1-10
2 comments:
Wow. Easter in Hawaii sounds perfect! Glad you had a such a great day.
Angie - Thanks! We did have a tough time at a "different" worship because we didn't take the time to make sure we were going to one we would feel comfortable at. The message they gave was perfect, but we were sad that we didn't get to participate in the singing. However, otherwise the day was beautiful, and it was nice to be surrounded by so many Christians. We come from the the Northwest "none-zone" where Christians are considered freaks. Which, I guess we are, kind of, but I like being able to share a conversation with people about Jesus and not have the conversation go dead in 10 seconds.
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