what a busy, yet fun easter weekend we had.

on saturday, we headed up to chattanooga because i had plans to go to our church’s easter pageant with my parents and sister-in-law. sonrise, which is set on my college’s campus, has become a huge event. it’s something our church does for the community, and every year thousands of people representing many religions attend. you would think that watching the story of jesus’ life and death would have less of an impact when you see it every year, but it really doesn’t. sonrise has five scenes, beginning with jesus’ entry into jerusalem and the last supper, then going to gethsemane and pilate’s judgement hall, and ending with jesus lugging the heavy cross to calvary and his resurrection three days later.

for the last five years, my brothers have played judas. after the first year of sonrise, the organizers decided it would be better to have twins playing the part. randy always plays the judas at the last supper and gethsemane. he has the most lines of any of the disciples, and he does a fabulous job. this year, he grew facial hair to add to his part.

here he is letting jesus wash his feet.

at gethsemane, we watched as satan mocked jesus, telling him he was throwing his love away on humanity. it is very hard to find someone to play a really good satan. to be effective, you have to have someone who can be really slimy. there really hasn’t been a great satan since the first year, but this year’s was good enough.

with a kiss, jesus was betrayed.

and taken into custody to be tried by pilate.

as we walked toward calvary, we passed a tree where my other brother, ryan, played judas after he hung himself.

he does a really good job of looking dead. usually, kids try to make him move or laugh, but he remains still. this year, a little girl going by with her parents must have thought he really was dead because she started crying and screaming. 🙁

my absolute favorite scene is the resurrection. the song “arise my love” by newsong is played, and an angel fights satan. this year, she pushed him off the stage and flames erupted, as if she was pushing him into the fires of hell. it was really impressive. a man sitting in front of us started cheering and screaming at that point. hehe. then, jesus came out of the tomb, and the whole gymnasium erupted into cheers and applause. i think that’s one of the things that makes that scene my favorite. it’s so awesome to see hundreds of people cheering for jesus. watching him arise from the tomb also impacts me every year. it reinforces me to me what he did for us and what his sacrifice means. it really is a great way to celebrate easter.

when we got home, we napped for about three hours (wow!), and then got applebees take-out and watched the braves game we had taped from the afternoon. it was a fabulous game, even though i fell asleep toward the end. we came back from behind and beat the mets 5-3. we also exchanged easter/spring baskets, since joe’s parents were going to visit on sunday. joe got me the cutest pink basket with a bunny on it, and in addition to candy, got me the devil wears prada dvd. yay. i didn’t even realize when i was shopping for joe’s basket that he couldn’t eat most of the candy i got during passover. oh well. he’ll have lots to eat tomorrow night!

on sunday, joe’s parents came up, and we went to lunch at cracker barrel and then took them to see the new house. they loved it and thought it was perfect for us. i’m now worrying the living room won’t be big enough for when we have a baby. oh well. after joe’s parents left, we watched the rest of the braves game, cheering as the mets fell once again. what a way to start the season. now, the braves are in first place in the division with only one loss. i know it doesn’t mean anything right now, but it’s a good way to begin. it’ll help out later in the summer.