Easter has slipped up on me! This week, my sister asked me, “What do you want to do for Easter.” I thought to myself, we have a few weeks to plan but I think she recognized, by the look on my face, that I wasn’t tracking with the dates. So, she clearly stated, “It’s THIS Sunday!” “This week, this Sunday”, I responded? “YES, this week, this Sunday”, she stated. And with that, I was shaken by the reality that 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. It doesn’t sound that difficult but they each have such meaning. 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 dressed in our Easter finest, baskets in hand, standing in the backyard. I was about 5 and 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. 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 1,900 years ago, Jesus transitioned from death to life, a brutal act meant to snuff out his radical teachings of love and acceptance. As I sat in that theater, images of my life paraded before my eyes. 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 who decide 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 to 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 why we celebrate.

Give Thanks – YouTube Music