The Importance of Easter

I am a Christian, which means I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I have chosen to be one because I have read the Bible and believe it is true.  I have also studied other beliefs systems of the world, including not believing in a God at all, but in my life I cannot deny that He is real.

For me and other followers of Jesus, Easter really is not about bunnies and colorful baskets filled with pretty eggs. While the bright colors and designs are beautiful reminders of spring - they very poorly represent what we are remembering at Easter.

This is my Baby Girl surrounded by babies last Easter.  

Even though she attends a different church - she helped me in the nursery 

because we were shorthanded.  The little ones loved her 

and all wanted to sit in her lap.  It was sooo cute!

I think I'm not alone in wondering why Christmas is celebrated for an entire season, and yet Easter, which is undoubtedly our most important holiday, is given a weekend or maybe a week at best.

To help my family and me focus and remember more of the events that are Easter, I have been searching for meaningful ways to celebrate this event for which our entire faith is built upon.  

But it's very hard!  

It's fun to celebrate Christmas with the precious baby, and the beautiful young mother who is protected by the noble Joseph.  It is magical to think of angels filling the sky with singing, and elaborately adorned wisemen bringing priceless gifts to a baby king.

But.......Easter is not so pretty.  It is about betrayal, denial, and horrific sacrifice.  It's scenes are those of beatings and cruelty beyond what my human mind can absorb.  It is a gruesome story, and yet it is the most beautiful story ever told, because the real story of Easter is that of Forgiveness and Redemption.

I took this picture of a painting at Guayasamin's museum in Quito, Ecuador.  He was a famous artist of Quito.  His work was inspired by Picasso.  

If you don't know what Easter is really about, here is a video to give you a glimpse

Or perhaps you would like to read it directly from the Bible. If so, click here

We are going to celebrate Easter in some new ways this year. I've been deeply pondering different parts of the story and have thought of a few things we can do to help us remember:

Celebrate a Passover Meal followed by songs of Hosanna

Actually go to a garden to pray to prepare our hearts for Easter

Hide and then hunt for 30 silver coins (quarters) for each child - and some Hershey's kisses.  We will give the coins to our special Easter offering at church, or allow the kids to give to a favorite cause.  The kisses we will give to each other.  We want to remember what Judas did, but use it for good.

I'm going to arrange with some family and friends - ahead of time - to call or stop by our house to ask about Jesus.  On that particular day, we will deny that we know who Jesus is. This will help us to think about how hard and scary it must have been for Jesus' followers after He was arrested.

On Friday, we will each write down on small pieces of paper some things that we are doing that are not pleasing to God. We will then each take a real red rose and tuck those pieces of paper between the petals.  We'll talk about how perfect Jesus is - like the rose - then we'll touch the thorns and imagine them being placed on his head.  Finally, we will nail our roses to a cross of wood.  After several hours, when the roses have wilted, we will place our roses beneath a large flower pot and place a heavy rock on top of it.

On Sunday morning, a rose bush will be standing in the flower pot.  At the base of the bush will be envelopes addressed to each member of our family.  Inside will be the little pieces of paper that we wrote on, now with the words  

Paid In Full 

marked across them.  We will then spend the day rejoicing!!!

To complete our celebration, we will plant the rose bush in our garden to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.

If your family has meaningful traditions to celebrate Easter, I sincerely hope you will share!  A few people have asked me for ideas and these are some that came to my mind. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Ellie

Also, if you would like to know more about Jesus and how He can change your life, please write to me at ellie@thelavendertub.com.  I will be happy to share more about Him and what He has done for me - with you.