Easter Has Not Forgotten You!

Easter came at an alarming rate this year. I wasn't quite ready for it. Of course, I love certain traditions like getting the Honey Baked Ham for a family celebration and gathering an Easter basket for my hubby filled with nutritional classy jelly beans and non-caloric Nestle Crunch eggs. I can't help but hit Trader Joes around this time for a beautiful budding purple Hyacinths that knock me over with yummy smells penetrating throughout the house.  When I really have some extra time, I like to blow out the yolk and white of eggs, color them and decorate them with  the art of quilling. That's when I really have time on my hands. Yes, I love Easter, but somehow it snuck up on me.

 

Even if Easter snuck up on me this year, Easter has not forgotten me. It hasn't forgotten you either. I'm so grateful for the death and resurrection of Jesus. To think that Jesus wanted me so much that He would march to the cross and literally take on the cruelest of deaths, so that I might live. He wanted me that much???!!! Wow. I sometimes have to wrap my little mind around that magnificent truth. I also have to believe that truth! You see, as a child, I was unwanted. Living in foster homes was my early existence until I was adopted into a loving home. The idea of someone dying for me? Wow, it's way too much to fathom. But, that's Jesus. He died for me and He died for you. For a cost… a huge cost.

 

As wonderful as yesterday was, I'm back to my routine today. Work projects due. A lawn to mow. Calls to make. Errands to run. Just a few hours away from a glorious Easter celebration and I'm back to this huge to-do list. I bet you are too. Life has its way of moving so fast we can't stop and really appreciate the enormity of what just happened. I do not want to let the joy and celebration of Easter settle into the routine of today.

 

Easter should have a powerful effect on our Monday. Easter should change our Tuesday, our Wednesday, our Thursday, our Friday, our Saturday and our Sunday. Easter should re-orient our thinking and transform the way we live. You and I are wanted and loved by God Himself! Sadly, we can read these words and it can mean very little to us. We can skip over Easter like it's just one more day on the calendar. It's not just about a tasty Honey Baked ham or an Easter egg hunt. Easter, if we truly understand it, should give us a spring in our step like never before!

 

Today can be the beginning of a new awakening in your life. You don't have to live in a spiritual rut. Yes, many of us do, but we don't have to. So many people don't get the messy "Christian" part of Easter, so we avoid it at all costs. It's just easier, right? What if you really believe what the Bible said about Jesus and His life, death and resurrection on this earth? What if you really believed that you are wanted and loved by Jesus Christ? It would radically affect everything about you.

 

This Monday is a new day. The empty tomb is the reminder that we have hope, a spiritual hope. Not in more stuff or success as we know it. But true hope. Hope that will last forever. Because of Easter, nothing should be the same again.

 

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us." 1 John 3:16

 

Read all of Matthew 28 in a Bible. What did you learn about what took place after Easter?

 

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain for the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.