Easter 2020 required some outside the box thinking, didn’t it? 

After a morning of online church and text greetings with family and friends, I cooked up a traditional meal for the beloved farmer and I to enjoy together, as if the entire brood was going to be gathered around our table instead of sheltering in place from their own homes. I even pulled out the fine china and we ate in the dining room, by candlelight. 

Okay, so the candlelight part was unexpected, like so many other things going on around us these days. Our corner of the world was rocked by thunderstorms and tornados that took out our electricity for a good part of Sunday. Hence the lamps. I chose to believe the soft lighting made our meal extra special. 

That’s what I’ve been focusing on throughout this social distancing experience, the choices we can still make day in and day out as to how we’ll respond. Choosing well is a good practice for all of life’s seasons.

I said as much to our kids when I sent them pictures of their dad and I eating by candlelight. We wanted them to know the two of us were happy being together and enjoying our Easter, even though it wasn’t what any of us would’ve planned. This is the legacy we’re hoping to leave our kids and grands, one of a joyful, faith filled empty nest rather than a woe is us, the kids are gone mentality! 

After our meal, we set out to get all the families together on one Zoom screen, per earlier agreements, including my parents. Despite prior planning, things went south quickly. Due to spotty Internet service from the aforementioned storm, we lost the “m”. Our gathering turned into one big ZOO with alternating screens freezing and everyone talking over everyone as we tried to problem solve.  

Our goal had been to have a video Communion service together with whatever juice and crackers the various homes had on hand, but the handwriting was on the wall. Enter Plan C, audio communion!

We abandoned ZOOM and did a sort of round robin calling of the different cell phones at the different houses. We put them all on speaker, and VOILA! Everyone could hear everyone! My man led our service out with a reading from the gospel of Mark. Then he had the son and son-in-law pray over the various elements, and once we had observed the Lord’s Supper, Phil asked Papa to close us all in prayer. 

I can honestly say, despite the technical difficulties and the literal distance between all the homes, it was an Easter Communion to be treasured. 

I called it regrouping the group. None of us can say how much longer we’ll be doing life six feet apart, but this old super bug can’t stop us from applying the following principle to all seasons and situations! 

There will always be ways to enjoy the people we love and the traditions that are important to us, as long as we surrender the idea of the “perfect” celebration. Perfect lived and died and lives again! His name is Jesus!

Got a Plan B, C, D, or E of your own to tell us about? We’re all ears!