Easter...
When you are little for Easter you usually get a basket full of chocolates and jelly beans, and let's be honest, kid or adult that's just SUPER. Easter egg hunts, food, family. Easter is awesome.
I can remember waking up on Easter morning when I was little and my mom and grandma standing in the living room telling my sister and I to find our baskets (because of course that tricky little Easter Bunny hid them). We could then eat a couple candies before church, but we had to wait until later to eat more. Waiting to eat candy was probably the worst part of Easter that I remember as a kid. It was like torture. After finding our basket and inhaling all that was allowed of our candy, we would then put on our Easter dresses and go to church. Our church had one very awesome thing on Easter morning. There was a giant cross on the ground at the front of our huge church made entirely out of Lilies. After church sometimes there was dinner at my uncle's and I vaguely remember an egg hunt at my Uncle Alan's one year. I enjoyed Easter, usually it was warm, flowers and trees were turning green again, and I had a load of candy and a sugar rush to match it. What kid wouldn't be happy?
As an 18 year old and for a few years after that, Easter meant nothing. No candy, no church, no big deal. I had more important things to do, and by important I mean lazy. I wouldn't do much of anything, so much so I can't even tell you what I did for Easter for those few years. I was probably sound asleep while those chumps woke up to go to church, and those little kids got all my candy. But no matter, I was an adult if I wanted candy I could go buy it, and I didn't want church so I was set.
Fast forward a few years to 2005, Easter morning. I had a job at a church, not because I liked church, but because I liked money. I got paid 10 bucks an hour to watch two kids in a nursery, every so often there was more than two, like twelve, but I didn't care. However, as I drove to work that Easter morning my boyfriend (now my husband) was going to church with his brother and sister-in-law and I felt jealous. I didn't want to go to work, I wanted to go to church "like a good person would" and be with my "family" (we weren't married so technically we weren't family yet). I let my boss know that I really wanted to go to church and be with family and they were fine it (of course I look back now and I left those people to handle the nursery "rush" on one of the busiest church days of the year, and those kids were probably all hyped up on candy, not cool). So I went to the little Christian church, and listened to their "He is risen, believe, be saved" message. I don't remember it meaning anything at all to me, but small steps take you places, just slower.
Brian and I got married in 2006 and because of that I thought, "I can now go to church without those people judging me. "Little did I know they weren't "judging me" in the first place. But I still thought they were nuts nuts nuts. Always happy and waiting for the end of the world, the return of Christ (I had no clue what that meant), and your name being written in The Book of Life. They weren't afraid of life or death. Over time, and by looking at a lot of religions, from Buddhism to Christianity, only one seemed true. I then asked a lady at church about how do you know if you are going to Heaven to Hell? How can you be sure? I was "saved” the next day.
Fast forward to Easter now, I again LOVE IT. I will admit that I still get a basket. Brian and I are fun loving people, kids at heart, and the idea of replicating some of my favorite childhood memories is stellar. We both get a little basket and it's a reminder of that special memory I had from a kid. And we both get candy, really a win-win in my eyes. As an adult, or at least kind of an adult, I actually will only eat a couple pieces, then get ready for church. How that rule stuck in my head, I'll never know. I then get ready for church, and yes I do try to look extra nice for Easter like a lot of people. Not for other people in the least, but because it's such a special day, normal clothes just don't seem to fit this occasion. At our church we eat Easter breakfast together. It's a breakfast potluck and we all gather together as a great big family and eat and rejoice that Christ is risen. Then we have our church service. Brian and I then go have a Easter dinner with a few of our family members, and it's a spectacular day.
There is a difference now though from when I was younger. When I was little Easter without the basket, candy, dinner, etc. wouldn't have been Easter. Now as a person who loves Christ, even though I like the basket, dinner etc., the one thing that would make Easter "not Easter" is not having the story, the reminder, being told the fact that we are celebrating the resurrection of Christ. That's what makes Easter special. You could build me a chocolate mansion, decorate it in pretty colored Easter eggs, and have a ham dinner inside and it wouldn't mean anything without Christ. Easter, also called in our church Resurrection Day, is special because of the biblical account of what Christ did for all.
If you already know the account, refresh the truth. If you have never heard, please read these verses and think about it, pray to God about it, ask about it. If you do not care to know, think about this reality: one day each person will die, and death isn't the end. Everyone will live in eternity but it will be in either Hell or Heaven (per the Bible). That was something that made me start to wonder about whats true.
What to keep in mind at Easter and everyday about yourself, and myself:
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way.
The main idea of Easter and what can make us feel better about those previous verses:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The "Easter" story:
Matthew 27:29-31 When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.
Isaiah 52:14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness...
Isaiah 53:5-6 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Luke 23:44-46, 52-53 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.
Luke 24:1-8 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He is risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered his words.
Why would anyone, and how would anyone, believe that a man was raised form the dead:
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
John 20:29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Summary? Every single human is a sinner. We need someone to pay for our sins so we can join Christ in Heaven after death. God sent His Son to pay for those sins, because He loves us, but cannot over look sin. His Son died for us, His blood washing away and paying for our sins so we can be forgiven by God.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Romans 10:9-10, 13 That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Happy Easter folks! I do hope it's a special for you all.
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