Have you heard anyone say, "Easter is early this year!"?
My first awareness of the approach of Easter this year occurred on March 31st at a local drug store. I was at this store to buy supplies to prepare for a surgery that was scheduled for March 2nd. I had been preoccupied by the condition causing me to require this surgery for weeks prior to this and had placed my usual mental list of preparation for Easter into my "in the future" category, thus not needing my immediate attention.
I rounded a corner to head back to the pharmacy and was suddenly confronted with a sign that told me that Easter was just around the corner. "Just around the corner?", I thought "What does that exactly mean?" The same sign was happy to inform me in smaller print that Easter was on April 12! "It's really early this year.", I said to myself. I thought of what it would take to get everything necessary to have Easter as usual and realized that there was no way in the world I could pull it off. I threw some plastic eggs and bubbles for my grandson in the basket and being short on time, I continued back to the pharmacy thinking, "Easter is going to be different this year."
March 2nd came and went, leaving me confined to my couch with no sitting or standing except on crutches for 6 weeks. This morning was first time I've been able to really think about anything except my infirmity. Thanking God for my laptop, I got on the internet with the idea of searching for Easter graphics. What I found first was a total barrage of cute little pastel colored bunnies, chicks, eggs, etc. I don't have anything against all this stuff. It's cute and pretty and kids love it. It would be easy to make something quick, but I wanted something that represented the deeper, spiritual meaning of Easter, since this will be the only contribution I am capable of. I was looking for images of the risen Christ and crosses with white lilies and angels, etc. Of the few I found, one I particularly like is at the top of this post. I was immediately aware of how saturated the internet was with everything but the Christian representation of Easter.
Easter is a Christian holiday. My family and I are all Christians. The resurrection of Christ is what it's all about to us. When I was a young girl, you could go to any store to buy an Easter gift for someone that portrayed the resurrection of Christ and find it easily. Today you have to go to a Christian store to find anything at all.
It seems that Easter has been reduced to another reason to eat a big meal, buy the kids more stuff and people to spend a lot of time and money that they don't have just to say that they did it and have pictures to show for it. Take away all the bunnies, chicks and eggs and what do you have? In short it's become another way for stores and greeting card makers to get people to spend money they don't really have on stuff they don't really need. For many it's one of the 2 days a year that suffer going to church. For many more, it's just another day. I wonder what people would do if they weren't able to get all that stuff. It would become just another day to most people. I'd be willing to bet that there are already a lot of people who don't bother to celebrate it now, seeing how tight money is for everyone.
Since I'm here on the couch with time on my hands, I decided to share some of what I have to look forward to about Easter. I realized this year that my inability to "do Easter" in the normal sense has renewed my ability to celebrate it. Easter celebration this year won't cost me anything at all. That's as it should be, because Jesus has already paid for it all.
It's the beautiful story of God sending his only begotten Son to redeem a fallen creation. It's the story of blessed hope for anyone who will accept it as their own. It's the celebration of the One whose sacrifice makes my eternal destination a sure and wonderful prospect. It's the celebration of the death, burial and especially the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, the Savior. It's the story told that was foretold by the ancients thousands of years ago. Some people make it hard like they have to do so much and give up so much to be a Christian. But really it's this simple:
God so loved the world that He gave his only Son to reconcile us back to Himself. This Son was born to a virgin named Mary. He lived for approximately 33 years. He preached a message of unconditional love. He healed the sick, raised the dead and made the blind see. For the most part the common people accepted Him. The religious people and the powerful political leaders felt threatened by Him, in spite of the fact that he only did good to them. They beat Him mercilessly, humiliated Him without relent and killed Him by nailing Him to a cross, the most cruel and painful way of executing a person at that time. He was buried in a cave. After three days he rose again. His main message while He walked the earth was that anyone who accepted Him could have reconciliation with the one true God, the maker of all things. He promised that whoever accepted Him would not perish, but would have eternal life with the Father.
This is a free gift. You can't buy it at Wal=Mart or Target or anywhere else. In fact, you don't have to be anywhere specifically to receive it. All you have to do is ask Him.
My first awareness of the approach of Easter this year occurred on March 31st at a local drug store. I was at this store to buy supplies to prepare for a surgery that was scheduled for March 2nd. I had been preoccupied by the condition causing me to require this surgery for weeks prior to this and had placed my usual mental list of preparation for Easter into my "in the future" category, thus not needing my immediate attention.
I rounded a corner to head back to the pharmacy and was suddenly confronted with a sign that told me that Easter was just around the corner. "Just around the corner?", I thought "What does that exactly mean?" The same sign was happy to inform me in smaller print that Easter was on April 12! "It's really early this year.", I said to myself. I thought of what it would take to get everything necessary to have Easter as usual and realized that there was no way in the world I could pull it off. I threw some plastic eggs and bubbles for my grandson in the basket and being short on time, I continued back to the pharmacy thinking, "Easter is going to be different this year."
March 2nd came and went, leaving me confined to my couch with no sitting or standing except on crutches for 6 weeks. This morning was first time I've been able to really think about anything except my infirmity. Thanking God for my laptop, I got on the internet with the idea of searching for Easter graphics. What I found first was a total barrage of cute little pastel colored bunnies, chicks, eggs, etc. I don't have anything against all this stuff. It's cute and pretty and kids love it. It would be easy to make something quick, but I wanted something that represented the deeper, spiritual meaning of Easter, since this will be the only contribution I am capable of. I was looking for images of the risen Christ and crosses with white lilies and angels, etc. Of the few I found, one I particularly like is at the top of this post. I was immediately aware of how saturated the internet was with everything but the Christian representation of Easter.
Easter is a Christian holiday. My family and I are all Christians. The resurrection of Christ is what it's all about to us. When I was a young girl, you could go to any store to buy an Easter gift for someone that portrayed the resurrection of Christ and find it easily. Today you have to go to a Christian store to find anything at all.
It seems that Easter has been reduced to another reason to eat a big meal, buy the kids more stuff and people to spend a lot of time and money that they don't have just to say that they did it and have pictures to show for it. Take away all the bunnies, chicks and eggs and what do you have? In short it's become another way for stores and greeting card makers to get people to spend money they don't really have on stuff they don't really need. For many it's one of the 2 days a year that suffer going to church. For many more, it's just another day. I wonder what people would do if they weren't able to get all that stuff. It would become just another day to most people. I'd be willing to bet that there are already a lot of people who don't bother to celebrate it now, seeing how tight money is for everyone.
Since I'm here on the couch with time on my hands, I decided to share some of what I have to look forward to about Easter. I realized this year that my inability to "do Easter" in the normal sense has renewed my ability to celebrate it. Easter celebration this year won't cost me anything at all. That's as it should be, because Jesus has already paid for it all.
It's the beautiful story of God sending his only begotten Son to redeem a fallen creation. It's the story of blessed hope for anyone who will accept it as their own. It's the celebration of the One whose sacrifice makes my eternal destination a sure and wonderful prospect. It's the celebration of the death, burial and especially the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, the Savior. It's the story told that was foretold by the ancients thousands of years ago. Some people make it hard like they have to do so much and give up so much to be a Christian. But really it's this simple:
God so loved the world that He gave his only Son to reconcile us back to Himself. This Son was born to a virgin named Mary. He lived for approximately 33 years. He preached a message of unconditional love. He healed the sick, raised the dead and made the blind see. For the most part the common people accepted Him. The religious people and the powerful political leaders felt threatened by Him, in spite of the fact that he only did good to them. They beat Him mercilessly, humiliated Him without relent and killed Him by nailing Him to a cross, the most cruel and painful way of executing a person at that time. He was buried in a cave. After three days he rose again. His main message while He walked the earth was that anyone who accepted Him could have reconciliation with the one true God, the maker of all things. He promised that whoever accepted Him would not perish, but would have eternal life with the Father.
This is a free gift. You can't buy it at Wal=Mart or Target or anywhere else. In fact, you don't have to be anywhere specifically to receive it. All you have to do is ask Him.
I'm glad Easter was early this year. If it weren't, I might have done Easter as usual and missed the opportunity to Celebrate the true meaning of Easter.
Have a Happy and Blessed Easter!
LinnyT
Have a Happy and Blessed Easter!
LinnyT
