Our Three Strand Life: An Easter Celebration

We sat side by side in our love seat. Our smiles were genuine as we waited for the automatic timer to click on my camera. He couldn't understand why I kept laughing - it was only a self-timed picture after all! The camera shutter opened and closed in a flash of an instant and I was hopping up and running to check if it passed my approval - in 3+ inch heels mind you.

At try #5 I nearly succumbed to the laughter. My mind was in years gone by. I could see my siblings and me crowded around my mom in our Easter best on the family sofa, waiting for my dad to set the camera timer. My mom, to my right cracking up at the little black lens we all stared into. Words can't describe what a hysterical sense of loneliness it is to stare at a tripod for a family photo. But that's how it was! We were all each other had. The lone wolf family of a very big extended family, we were on our own.

I sat there remembering that feeling so well. And now here I was, all grown up... staring into my own self-timed camera. Thinking of my mom and dad. Admiring their bravery in all those years raising us with no one around. So I chose to laugh happily, when I could have just as easily cried. Because life is good. Because God is good. Because my Savior is risen! Because as lonely as life can get from time to time, it is still a beautiful gift.