Easter Every Day!

With Easter upon us, I have been pondering the holiday more than usual…well actually not really.  As I see people preparing for their family gatherings, their church services; as I see them hanging up their decorations and the stores fill up with candy and baskets and eggs, I think about how the message of the cross gets lost in all of this.   It gets lost in something commercial.  It gets lost in tradition.  It’s not really about Him anymore at all.

But for me (and for many of you as well), it’s not about family or tradition.  The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are on my mind every single day.  I think about it all the time.  So when this holiday approaches what I am thinking about are all the people who proclaim Him for one day and then go on about their lives as though His sacrifice meant nothing at all.  At one time I was one of those people and my heart aches that they might really know Him.  Because when you really know Jesus, His death on the cross is never far from thought.

And the bunny and the chocolate and the Easter egg hunts sting just a little bit.  Because while they are cute and nice, they take attention away from what really happened over two thousand years ago.  They make it pretty and it wasn’t.  It was dirty, and violent, and painful, and it was the ultimate sacrifice.  And they take away from the message that death was overcome, that eternal, everlasting, freeing life is possible because of Jesus Christ. 

I love living life with that knowledge.  I love Easter Sunday because unlike every other day, so many people are at least open to talking about Him and hearing about Him.  There are opportunities there for people’s lives to be changed.   So I’m excited for what He will do with it and I’m ready to be used by Him in any way He sees fit.  No chocolate.  No lamb with mint jelly.  No synthetic green plastic grass.  Just Jesus Christ who was crucified and died on a cross, but who is risen from death and is Alive!

Merry Christmas!

It's late and we just finished putting out the kid's Christmas gifts under the tree.  Our apartment has no place to hang stockings so they are resting against a bookcase, ready to be torn into tomorrow morning.  It's funny because for weeks my kids have been talking excitedly about opening presents and every time I try to redirect them to the reason we celebrate the holiday to begin with.  "Don't forget what we're celebrating.  It's Jesus' birthday and we're so thankful He was born."  I've said it so many times, willing it's way into their little hearts.  Everything around them screams that Christmas is about presents, and Santa, and even just family and friends.  None of those things are wrong or bad, but I so desperately want them to be only a tiny part and for Jesus to be the real reason my children are excited for Christmas.  He deserves a celebration.

 So as I sit here reflecting on His birth, I think about how he chose to come into this world.  He chose a stinking stable so that we would see what true humilty is.  He chose a lowly existence.  He chose to come, not as a man at first, but as a helpless baby who needed a mother to care for Him in every way.  Eventually He chose the nails that pierced His hands.  He did that for us all.  I'm so thankful and so greatful.  I hope I can help my children to understand this amidst all their whirlwind of new gifts.  Maybe I can't.  Maybe all the gift giving will always overshadow Jesus.  If that is the case we will need to rethink that part of our family tradition.  When it's their birthday we turn our attention to them.  But tomorrow we celebrate His and that is where our joy and hearts and focus should be. 

Merry Christmas to you all!

-Kate