Easter is Kind of a Big Deal

Easter has always been my favorite holiday, except for the brief period in my childhood where Christmas edged it out the year I got my very own stereo.

Easter is spring, the end of the cold and dead winter.  Easter is new life.  Easter is birds and daffodils and sunshine.  Easter is pastel dresses and ties.  Easter is bunnies and ducks and chicks, and babies in bonnets.   Easter is egg hunts.  And Easter is chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies and chocolate crosses and chocolate ducks and chocolate chicks.

Make no mistake. Easter is chocolate.

Easter is one of those holidays that isn’t too much.  Commercialism hasn’t yet swallowed it whole, and you don’t have to prepare months in advance to observe it.  It’s a chance for families and friends to get together and celebrate with a meal.  People aren’t incredulous if you decide that you are going away for Easter this year.

If you go to church regularly, you won’t miss anything about Easter if you go to church.  In fact, church is expected at Easter because Easter is always on Sunday.  If you don’t go to church regularly, you feel better about yourself if you go on Easter because Easter Sunday is regarded as one of the most important days to go to church ever.

It’s really the perfect holiday.

By far the best part of Easter is the hope it represents.  Jesus’ death is a grisly reminder of how ugly humanity can be, but his sacrifice and resurrection marks the beginning of a new life for all of us.  His death signifies our eternal life, that despite our everyday failings we can be renewed.

The specialness of Easter is that God showed his love for us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins.  Our certain death was reversed by this amazing gift.  Jesus’ blood washes our sins away, and what’s more, God gave us his Spirit to guide us. 

Easter is the point of God’s plan at which the trajectory of the world, and each one of us, is given the chance to change.  Easter is when humans are given a shot at eternal life.  Easter is the reminder of God’s gift, this love that we can’t experience in any other way.

And along with the chocolate, it’s not a bad set of reasons for Easter to be a person’s favorite holiday.

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For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16 (NLT)