Easter, Canceled?

This year Easter needless to say, like everything else, looked a little different for everyone. Easter as we have known was canceled. There were no giant Easter productions or plays, no long drawn out services, no ginormous Easter egg hunts, and I don’t think I’ve seen any crying children taking pictures with the Easter bunny on social media (thank God). So yeah, things have looked different this year for this holiday. Much like the rest of life Easter could not be celebrated with large gatherings of family and friends. In all honesty though I think its okay that Easter was canceled. I believe it gave many an opportunity to step back and examine if this holiday has any sort of meaning to them or is it just another event to stress about? For Christians this is supposed to be one of the biggest holidays of the year as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. While Easter has not always been a Christian holiday, like most holidays we celebrate, at its roots it has always been a time for us to celebrate the new life that comes at this time of year. A time of rebirth that is marked by the Spring season. For Christians it is an opportunity to celebrate the opportunity for renewal in the resurrection of Jesus. As Jesus says during the Last Supper, it is a time to remember and reflect on what He did for us. From coming to the Earth as a man, living a perfect sinless life, and dying on the cross after a gruesome beating that should alone have killed him so that we could have the choice to live our lives in with a genuine, intimate relationship with God the father. That is something that can be done without all of the commercialism that usually surrounds Easter. It is something that can/should be done everyday that we decide to call ourselves Christians, but who am I to say something like that when even I have a hard time doing it. Thank God though He doesn’t ask for a perfect performance from us. Regardless of what Easter means to you or how you celebrated, I do hope that it was a great one spent with loved ones.

“And he took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me”. In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” Luke 22:19-20