22
Mar
stored in: Thoughts on life
Read this on Family Life that I think is insightful:
As Easter approaches, don’t you often wonder why Christmas gets all the good press, while Easter is treated more like a very distant second cousin? After all, it’s a commemoration of the greatest news ever proclaimed in history: Christ is alive and we are forgiven! Easter arrives with so little fanfare, we almost forget it’s coming.
I think there are three main reasons why even Christians neglect the importance of Easter:
- It’s not interesting to the secular community. While the entire culture is focused on gift-giving and food-filled festivities at Christmas, Easter doesn’t fit as well into our society’s love affair with materialism.
- It’s not connected with many family traditions. Outside of going to church and having a nice Sunday dinner, few families have Easter memories that pass down from generation to generation. Chances are you don’t have a special box containing your Easter reminders. (At FamilyLife we’ve been pleased to see our Resurrection Eggs®help to fill this gap for Christian families. It’s simply one idea among many you could try to make your Easter celebration more intentional and meaningful.)
- Though we like Advent, we shy away from Lent. Perhaps many Protestants have the perception that Catholics have the corner on this particular celebration, since it is common during Lent for many Catholics to give up something desirable to commemorate Christ’s sacrifice. In some cases, this may be practiced in an overly legalistic way that misses the point altogether, but I think we’ve recoiled from a great idea — preparing our hearts to celebrate the most precious event of our lives. I think we need to revive this time-honored tradition.
Easter is the crowning point of the Christian’s life — the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. It’s the sole reason for our hope and joy. Make plans now to really celebrate it this year.