The Easter Cross and Spring
The history of what we call “Easter” has developed through the centuries to the event we cele-brate today. “Easter”, like “Christmas” is not mentioned by name in the Bible. These events are described by actions rather than titles.
In our current culture, we have to have titles for everything as it seems we do not have the time to listen to the detailed stories of the events in the Bible or in everyday life. We need to devel-op our listening and thought processes to understand events and individuals. That is why Chris-tians have churches and Bible study to understand even a little of God’s grander rather than at-tempting to assign a made-up name or title for events. Go to the source, not the opinions of others.
“Easter” for Christians could be called “Resurrection” because we celebrate Jesus resurrection from death to return to his Father after paying for our sins. He suffered for each of us and only asks that we accept his sacrifice.
Faith is easy to define, but difficult for many of us to practice in our daily lives.
For others, it is a time for eating out, coloring and hiding eggs, or just taking a day off.
For many of us, it is a combination of celebrating Jesus re-birth and the birth of Spring. Two beautiful events in the early part of each year.
In addition to proclaiming “He is Risen!” we can also say “Happy Easter”, pray before the meal, and recognize colorful eggs as part of the new beginning of our lives each year.
Both bring joy to the heart and mind, and both should be practiced.
Easter brings back memories of church in my youth, my parents’ joy when sharing Bible time together, egg hunts, and even the Easter Parade. But more than the physical memories, my mind wanders at the mysteries of life and death, birth and resurrection, and at how Christ has changed our world for over 2,000 years. As I get closer to “going home”, I pray that I and oth-ers will be worthy.
But those are thoughts for other days. Today is the joy of life after death! Happy Easter to all of you.
Dick and Barbara
Attached:
— One of my mother’s and my favorite hymns. YouTube comes with an ad, but hit skip to hear Alan Jackson.
— A sketch I drew and a poem I wrote yesterday about Easter. These are “20-minute inspira-tions” I will write about later. I only started to sketch last year and found it was a way to put my emotions on paper.
In this case, the wonderful merger of the resurrection and spring is both a new beginning for another year.
Not attached because this is already long, but will be in another post: Easter egg coloring.
