Out of the lips of babes

I hope that each of you had a blessed "Easter"...better named "Resurrection Day" as we celebrate and remember the day our Lord Jesus Christ arose.

We had a special day together as a family going to church, singing hymns at home together, searching for eggs just for fun, and we like to watch "Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ." Only got through 1/2 of it as its a long movie...but a great one.

I hope this week to have some more quiet moments though to think about God's wondrous love for each of us, that He would send His beloved Son Jesus into the world to die in our place so that we might live eternally...if we believe and trust in Him. In our busy household I've been lacking quiet moments to ponder His love and spend time with HIm. Our family is working on implementing a schedule to better manage our day and seeking to work into it what we feel is really important...time with the Lord being one!

As we were singing hymns I'm always blessed by the richness of the words. I didn't grow up learning lots of them as John and I became christians as young adults so we are always learning new ones, though some are now familiar and are favorites. I was thinking of putting a couple on my post and had trouble deciding which ones. :)

Then I started thinking about my young children's favorite songs when we worship together.
Sean, our 6 year-old adopted son with Down Syndrome, has one favorite that he always picks if we ask him...which also has been the favorite of Elsie our 5 year-old for a few years...

"Christ Arose!"

The first verse says:
"Low in the grave He lay--Jesus my Savior! Waiting the coming day--Jesus my Lord!
Up from the grave He arose! With a mighty triumph o'er His foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!"
Imagine lots of young children loudly singing with gusto and standing up with arms in the air singing "Up from the grave He arose!..." :)

Lily, our 4 year-old we adopted who also has DS, loves a song we recently learned with hand motions...of which she knows all of them (usually does them a few seconds before we do).

"He made the stars to shine...twinkle twinkle!
He made the rolling seas...splish splash!
He made the mountains high...so high!
And He made me...thumpety thumpety thumpety thump!
And this is why I love Him,
Because He bled and died...
The Lord of all creation,
became the crucified."

Now they may really like those songs because of the fun hand motions, the tune, how exciting it sounds, or because we sing them alot... but there are also other "fun" songs we sing that they like (itsy bitsy spider, old macdonald, etc) and if I asked them what they wanted to sing, Sean and Elsie I'm sure would say "He arose!" Sean can even say it now (and not just sign it).

I can't explain what a blessing that is to my heart...and how it teaches me too.
The Bible says that out of the lips of infants God has ordained praise. They may not yet totally understand all the words and its deep meaning...but they are praising God and delighting in doing so.

May we too delight in giving Him praise for He alone is worthy.
Hoping we all may take time to ponder His amazing grace and wondrous love shown to us on the cross, trust fully in His grace and power, and praise Him with our songs and with our lives.