Celebrate, But Don't Forget The Reason

by Dessa Rodeffer
Quill Editor/Publisher

31 March1999

It seems like whenever a serious event comes along we try to lighten it up, color it up, or do whatever it takes to avoid taking events too seriously.

That's fine and dandy, to a point, but it's pretty hard to put your heart into anything or accomplish anything if at some point we do not put our laughter and good times aside for some serious thinking, reflection, and work.

If we lighten up too much, celebrate too long, we could forget what the celebration is all about.

Take birthdays, for instance. We blow up balloons, dress in black, buy Over-The-Hill streamers, send cards with the best punch lines for our sweet friends who are getting another year older. However, the celebration is called b i r t h-day.

We should be celebrating the fact that on that special day, a unique person was born. One unlike any other person in the world. One with its own personality, its own fingerprints, its own special laugh, unique dreams, and ambitions. That is what we should really be celebrating each year.

But instead, we hang on the fact that they are 13, 16, 21, 30, 40, 50, 65, 80 or whatever, but that is really not the importance of the birthday.

We color it until the person's birth as possibly a lawyer, statesman, doctor, scientist, poet, artist, preacher, cook, grocery man, repairman, pilot, nurse, family member or a unique person in a thousand different ways, seems secondary to their age.

We've lightened up the pomp and circumstance of graduations. It seems there is confetti, whoops, outcries from the audience and family members and friends just glad to see that their special member somehow made it through their final year of school. It has become gradually different from the stately ritual and serious celebration of a person's accomplishments of which it was originally intended.

Of course, the birth of Christ is unrecognizable in some people's celebration of Christmas. There is no manger scene in their home, only a tree and Santa Claus presents. And the story of a babe in a manger is forgotten.

What we hand down to our children will help shape their world. Will it be all entertainment, or at some point, will they be forced to take life seriously when the entertainment they have been seeking has crashed.

And what have we done to Easter? We have brightly colored it until it is hard to recognize. The symbols can be in place, but without the Easter story, the explanations, the serious one on one talk we all yearn for, Easter is but another holiday on the calendar. It becomes an excuse to see the relatives, to have a day off, or a time for vacation.

"I planned the Easter Egg hunt, bought an Easter bunny and all kinds of candy, filled Easter baskets, sent cards, bought my new Easter dress and shoes," we may say. "Is there something I'm forgetting?"

Oh yes, it's the real reason for Easter. It is the story of the awesomeness of our God keeping his promise of salvation and the assurance that there is life after death for believers. For Easter is the day of Christ's resurrection.

Now, that's a lot to celebrate. That means for all those who have died it is not final for those who believe in Jesus (John 3:16-17).

Easter morning begins with the sunrise celebration of Christ's victory over death, thus ours, too, if we believe in Him.

The women who went after the third day to put ointments on His body as customary in those days, found Him gone, risen, and an Angel in the tomb proclaiming that He has risen indeed!

This is where the celebration begins, but only after the story is told. Hang the streamers and balloons, sing the music, dance in celebration. Eggs and Easter Lilies mean new life, and this is what Christ has given us all. So fill the Easter baskets, color the eggs if you will, but don't forget the cross, the empty tomb, and the angel's message of a loving God and Savior.

When you gather up the hidden eggs, tell the children that they can never hide from God for He is with them always. And if we wander away from Him, He will always find us and gather us into His arms.

Let's not cover up the Easter path so much with eggs, bunnies, and vacations that we fail to see the path to salvation.

Attend Maundy Thursday services where the story of the Last Supper is told. Then attend Good Friday services where Christ's crucifixion on the cross is told in a beautiful story of how: "God So Loved The World That He Gave His Only Begotten Son."

And, finally, attend Easter sunrise or regular Sunday services which tells how the tomb was empty because Christ arose from the dead! The message concludes with: "That Whosoever believeth In Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For God came not into this world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

Parties are fun, celebrations are grand, and we need laughter in the world, but it is a shallow existence if we do not honor our Creator for all He has given us. You don't have to believe in God for Him to still be in control of your destiny.

The choice is yours, to be with Him or against. There is no middle ground. Color it any way you want: Hide it: Reject it: Ignore it, but God will have His way.

May the blessings of a Savior be central in your Easter celebrations.