POST EASTER THOUGHTS

Each Easter, a prestigious university in this state, hosts an “Easter Egg Hunt” for children. In addition to eggs and candy, there are arts and crafts, fun and games and readings by local children’s authors.

Each year a call goes out to our local members of the Society of Book Writers and Illustrators, inviting authors to submit their picture books to be read at the “Easter Egg Hunt.” The caution however, is that the books “may have no religious connotation.”

Easter. All the secular dictionaries I search, I can find but one meaning:

an annual Christian festival in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ

As a writer myself, words have specific, almost sacred meanings. How can writers—especially successfully published writers—not recognize this? How can you hold an Easter event yet exclude religion from it?

<sigh>

Alas, any books I write about Easter that become published will go unread at this event. They will be filled—page-by-page; margin-to-margin with my Lord and Savior, Jesus, the Christ.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for Easter and for giving us ways to celebrate your gift of salvation. Please help us share your gospel with others; please open their eyes and hearts to your gift, so freely given. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? What was the best part of your Easter?

JOY REMEMBERED

Today’s post is part of the Christian Writer’s blog chain. This month, our theme is “Joy.” Please visit my friends’ blogs by clicking on the links in the right-hand column. 

===============================

This past Sunday was Palm Sunday—a remembrance of that joy-filled day when Jesus entered Jerusalem; met by crowds of followers who understood that he was their source of joy. They celebrated his entry by waving palm branches (think flags and pom-poms) and shouting “Hallelujah! Hosanna!”  

They, as yet, did not understand the full extent of the joy to come.  

Tomorrow as we eat dinner, we can remember Jesus and his disciples partaking together in the Passover meal. We can remember them going to Gethsemane where Jesus prayed over the ordeal he was to endure.  

We can look back to the joy that was about to fill heaven and earth because of the events that took place that night and throughout the days leading to Easter Sunday. 

• Tomorrow, Maundy Thursday: the day Jesus was arrested, tried, and tortured

• Good Friday: the day Jesus died a criminal’s death on a cross

• Holy Saturday: the day Jesus’ body lay in a borrowed tomb

• Easter Sunday: the day Jesus was resurrected, ensuring that we could spend eternity with Him

Joyful, joyful, we adore Him!  

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for the joy we find through Jesus. Thank you, Jesus for becoming human and being a sacrifice for our sake. Holy Spirit, please fill us with the joy we can have through you. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Share a thought about this Easter week.

WHAT'S IN YOUR EASTER BASKET? (Freelance Friday)

I love Easter. It celebrates the day my Lord proved His power over death. It represents second chances (and 102nd chances). It represents my assurance that I will spend eternity with Jesus.

I also love Easter because I was born on Easter Sunday. Easter brought literal new life to me. Easter hops along the calendar from year to year, almost never landing on the same date twice. Without getting technical, I'll just say that I'll never have another birthday on Easter Sunday again.

But I still love the holiday. Yes, I agree that Easter has become a commercialization of one of our most sacred holy days. But that doesn’t mean those commercialized symbols still don’t mean something beneath the flash and glitzy packaging. So think about three of our top Easter symbols: Easter eggs, jellybeans and chocolate bunnies. 

• Eggs, because they represent new life. Hard boiled like us.

• Jellybeans, tiny eggs, also represent new life. And like us, they've got a hard shell on the outside and a heart of jelly inside.

• Bunnies, with their propensity to multiply also represent new life.  Chocolate outside represents our darkness; I don’t need to even comment on how the air-filled emptiness inside is like us.

In spite of commercialization, I think Jesus would love the colored eggs and jellybeans and chocolate bunnies. Would He love the goofy guy dressed up in the fake fur bunny suit and oversized pants, passing candy to the little kiddies? Yes, Jesus would love him, too. Because that's the main point of Easter.

Jesus' unwavering love for us. Unexplainable outside of His love.

So bring on the colored eggs, the jellybeans and the chocolate bunnies. Even bring on the goofy guy in the fake fur suit and oversized pants. Bring it all on. Because however we celebrate it or whether other people "get it," Easter is for everyone.

And hopefully, one day everyone will understand.

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for the cross. Thank you for then proving your power over death. And thank you for the new life we have in you. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Do you have special celebrations that your family uses to observe Easter? What does the holiday mean to you?