Easter is Coming

I am not prepared for Easter. I have yet to purchase one item for Easter baskets, and I've only bought dresses for my daughter and I. There are still shoes and accessories to be purchased as well as all the goodies for the sugar fest Sunday morning. Thank goodness I have Good Friday off to run some errands. But even as I type that sentence I have a twinge of guilt that I am even considering something as commonplace and mundane as shopping on the anniversary of the crucifixion of Christ. Tomorrow should be a day of rest and reflection, much as we should treat the sabbath each week.

I usually listen to a Christian talk show on the radio during my commute and this week has been full of sermons about Easter, and it has really fixed my mind on Christ and His sacrifice. I want this weekend to be a time of worship and remembrance for me and for my family. I don't want Easter to be something that we treat as just another long weekend and an opportunity to dress up in new clothes and indulge in chocolate bunnies. Those things are precious to me because I've done them my whole life. Easter wouldn't be Easter without new white shoes and a pretty spring dress, right? Of course it would, and traditions in and of themselves are not a bad thing as long as we don't lose sight of the reason we even have those rituals.

So this Easter I commit myself to truly remembering the suffering that Christ went through for me and to focus on the miracle of His resurrection that gives me a hope for the future. I Peter 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.