Friday, March 29, 2013

Easter and Candy Baskets

It is Friday before Easter.  I've read the blogs of lent and holy week. I've seen the updates proclaiming today is Good Friday.  I'd like to say Easter crept up on me, but I saw it coming.  I had all the reminders hitting my inbox and my Facebook page.  I saw the chocolate Easter bunny commercials.

The song "Glorious Day" runs through my mind as the thought of Easter flickers again through my mind.  I think of what I will wear, what I will cook.  I wonder of the songs and the message for Sunday.  I realize I'm shallow about all of this.  I should be deeper and more spiritual about the upcoming Easter.  I usually am.  But this Easter I am grateful my life isn't a whirlwind of stress, anxiety, and drama....as many springtime pasts have been.  I'd like to enjoy Easter as if I were a child-- candy baskets, egg hunts, and pretty dresses; Bible lessons on the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. 

Don't take me wrong.  I realize the world we live in is not "candy baskets, egg hunts, and pretty dresses".  This world is dressed up in words like financial crisis, war, and hunger. It is plagued with broken homes, lost children, and crumbling marriages.  It is wrapped in anger, depression, anxiety and hopelessness.  It can be dark and sad.  Life is hard.

But yet, we should take the time to enjoy March Madness and planting flowers.  To glimpse at the budding trees and the grass turning new shades of green.  To laugh at the puppies as they run circles in the house and dig for moles outside (while trying not to cringe at muddy paws).

It is Easter, a time to remember the greatest sacrifice of all, the sacrifice of a Savior.  I will relish the Sunday morning service, I will worship the Savior, I will feel a humbling and gratefulness wash over me during the hour as I am reminded of God's love for me.  And when I leave the building, to go to my parents' home, to feast with friends and family--to talk about the service and yes the pretty dresses too....I remember that even these vain little things, that seem so shallow?  God's sacrifice allows me joy in not just Salvation, or the BIG things, but in all the million little things that He gave me....that every detail of my life-- from the Gospel message of the Cross to the candy baskets-- are gifts of joy for me.

Wherever you are today-- whether you are feeling brokenness or healing--may you find Easter a time where you celebrate what God has done, is doing, and will do.  Though our path isn't always clear or understandable--may you find your own "candy basket" where you are reminded of the million little things He is giving you each day.

Happy Easter!

Debbie

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