Easter slipped up on me. It’s not an excuse but I’ve been a little busy unpacking boxes and settling into our new home. Yet, there have been clues all around me. The store shelves have been lined with Easter decorations for weeks. Chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks abound and yet it didn’t sink in until last Sunday. The church bulletin announced the times of the Easter services and there it was in writing, Easter is HERE.

I was once asked which is my favorite holiday, Christmas or Easter. I had to stop for a few minutes and think through the question. I know it doesn’t sound that difficult but they each have such meaning to me. I responded, “I think it has to be Easter.” I chose that day because of the memories it brings.

Most of my childhood holiday memories are recorded in Polaroid pictures. They are neatly stored in a chest my father made. My favorite one is of my sister, brother, and me in our Easter finest, baskets in hand, standing in the backyard. I was about 5 my siblings were stairsteps that towered over me. There were feelings of joy and excitement as I hunted through the bushes for whatever the Easter Bunny had left behind and once the treasures had been collected, our meal had been consumed, and the excitement of the day had worn off, I was left with a sense of accomplishment. From my perspective, all was right with my little world. After all, I had enough candy to last what I thought would be months and a new coloring book with a jumbo pack of Crayola crayons.

I had no clue that as a few Easter Sundays passed, that sense of accomplishment, those feelings that all was right in my little world, would shift. Our family was divided by divorce. The closeness we experienced as siblings, was broken by our differences and the distance that happens when relationships aren’t tended to. Yet, it was an Easter morning that ultimately brought me hope.

Sitting in a large auditorium one Easter, I was reminded that the day is more than a visit from a furry gift-bearing rabbit. It is more than a fond memory, a snapshot of a point in time. Easter is the event that took my past and replaced it with the reality that even when brokenness pursues you, you can be made new.

Some 1,600 years ago, Jesus transitioned from death to life, a brutal act meant to snuff out his radical teachings of love and acceptance. And as I sat in that theater, images of my life paraded in front of me. There it was captured in one quick frame, that brutal event was not just meant to forever divide space and time, it was a personal invitation to be brought from the death that is my life (our lives) to newness in him. His resurrection forever closed the gap between heaven and earth for those that choose to follow him.

So, how is your Easter going? Have you taken a little time to stop and reflect not just on the celebration but also on the sacrifice? I would encourage you, take some time today to reflect on the hope that Jesus brings. It changed my world and I think he can change yours as well.

Be Blessed his BeLOVED,

I hope you have an amazing Easter. Here is a little gift to remind you of the reason for the celebration, ENJOY!

Give Thanks – YouTube Music