The Celebration of Easter

Greetings, gentle readers...

As others will do this weekend, I want to express my thoughts on our celebration of Easter. As funny as it may sound, as a young child in Sunday School I could never grasp how Jesus was born on Christmas and died on Easter and accomplished all that we read about in the Gospels! LOL Ah, the mind of a child.

Now that I have gown older, and hopefully wiser, I wonder often why we don't talk of the resurrection much in our churches. Oh, we talk about Jesus' death. We even carry around crucifixes on our bodies (and dangling from our car rear view mirrors) to remind us of such. There are so many messages from our pulpits on how Jesus died for our sins.

Don't misunderstand me. The death of our Lord is important. But, I put forth that His resurrection is of utmost importance. The fact that Jesus died makes Him just another man. The fact that He was resurrected makes Him our Savior. His death may bring us forgiveness of our sins, but His resurrection brings us the hope of eternal life! Without the resurrection, we are without hope.

I spent some time working for a cemetery and funeral home as an at-need counselor. I would meet with families and assist them at the time of death to make the necessary cemetery arrangements. In each meeting, I could very easily tell which families had the hope of the resurrection and which did not. For those who were Christians, believing that they will again be with their loved ones in glory, the hope was amazing. Even in their grief, there was joy. Often they would talk about the faith of their loved one and take strength from that faith. Often, the graveside commital services were celebrations of a life lived for our Lord and expressions of joy and thankfulness for a life lived and a soul transferred to Heaven.

But...for those who had no faith in the resurrection, there was only loss. And that loss was so deep and so hopeless that they often despaired of life themselves. It was dark and lonely, a place of depression and sadness that could literally be felt by the soul. So often, it would just break my heart for these lost souls. There was no comfort for them, no peace.

What I am saying to you this day is to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. Be joyful! Be thankful! This is not a somber occasion. This is a day of rejoicing! So, today raise your hands to the Lord in joyful thanksgiving for His resurrection; the promise of eternal life and hope of glory!

May God richly bless you this day.

CLG-B