Easter in Jerusalem

On Easter, we headed towards Jerusalem curious as to how Christians there celebrated. Originally, our plan had been to catch a service at the Garden Tomb, but parking alone took over 30 minutes and needless to say we did not make it.

Nonetheless, as we walked along the old city, there was such a spirit of celebration and joy. It was exciting to walk around knowing that despite the many different Christian denominations represented there that day, we were all rejoicing in the living Christ. There was not a single bunny or egg in sight, nor were many people concerned in wearing their Easter best. I never realized before the extent that those things, back in the U.S., distracted us from the real celebration. I felt such pure and simple joy in my heart. Anabelle and I couldn't stop smiling and clapping every time we heard a marching band pass by (we saw at least three and heard them moving throughout the city).
Gregorian priests in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher


It made my heart happy to hear Anabelle all week talking about looking forward to Easter Sunday, and when we asked her why she would say, "that's when Jesus came back." We didn't want to take away from the day in any way and so we decided that although we wanted Anabelle to have the experience of hunting for Easter eggs we wanted to keep it Christ centered, so we added some pieces of paper with simple scriptures inside each egg along with a few pieces of candy.


Nathan did a pretty good job of hiding the eggs in interesting places around our apartment complex, but as Anabelle was trying to get one of the eggs out of its hiding place she pushed too hard and got it stuck.

Luckily I have a smart husband who figured out how to get it unstuck without having to call our local handyman, thus saving us a lecture about sticking things where they don't belong.