BEAUTIFUL

Today of all days is the most beautiful of days. It's a day to celebrate. He is the reason. He paid the ultimate sacrifice, giving us the most beautiful gift. He is our beautiful reward....nothing else.

Some of you might shake your heads in disagreement, and I don't blame you, but, we have never given our kids Easter baskets. Oh, the deprivation, I know. However will they recover from the emotional scars? Maybe I'll pay for their therapy bills when their older. And before you start feeling really sorry for them, every year their Grandma has a big egg-coloring fiasco with them, and she gives them each a basket with candy. And please don't get me wrong, I in no way think less of people who celebrate with candy, baskets and gifts. It's a fun way for kids to celebrate such a special day.
But for me, it all started with Jon and mine's first Easter together. I will never forget it. He had been a christian for just over a year. He bounded out of bed that morning, and woke me up saying, "Liz, it's Easter!" He gave me this beautiful card (which I still have, and also a few more he's given me over the years on Easter, which is pretty amazing because Jon is usually an anti-card person), and in it he wrote how of all the days to celebrate, this is the day! Look at what Christ did for us! Because He died and didn't stay in the tomb, neither will we! Psalms 51 refers to "the joy of our salvation", and Jon was a shining example of someone having true joy in his salvation. It was so real to him, so authentic, so amazing and exciting. It took me by surprise, because for me, growing up in the church my whole life, Easter had become very mundane. Everyone gets dressed up, goes to church, sings the same songs you sing every Easter ("Celebrate, Jesus celebrate....He is risen, He is risen, and He lives forevermore...", I can almost hear you singing along), listen to the same type of Easter message you hear every year, turn and tell the person next to you, "He is risen, He is risen indeed", etc., etc. But that year, seeing the true joy my husband had in knowing Christ died for us and gave us eternal life, changed my whole perspective on Easter. Christ's sacrifice and victory became real to me again through the child-like faith of a new believer, my husband.

As our kids grew, we just never got into the candy, and the baskets, because it just wasn't important to us. A few years ago, our kids came home from the neighbor's house telling us of all the candy and gifts this boy had received, and they were wondering why we didn't give them anything for Easter. I tell you, it was the coolest thing to sit down with our kids, and read in detail the humiliation, pain and suffering Christ endured on the cross....for them, for all of us. And then reading about the joy of the disciples when they found the empty tomb on Easter morning. It was such a beautiful moment to explain to our kids, "He is our reward. There is no greater reward then salvation and eternal life." And that's why we celebrate Easter. We have already been given the greatest gift, there is nothing more that we need.

Now, did our kids really grasp that? I don't know, but I think they caught a glimpse, and someday I pray they will fully understand.

Do they wish they could wake up to a big fat Easter basket full of candy and gifts? What kid doesn't.

When they're grown and have kids of their own, will they spoil them with a ton of candy on Easter just to make up for what they didn't get as kids? Maybe.

But I pray they will truly come to an understanding of what it means to seek after God, and find that a relationship with Him is far more rewarding then anything this world has to offer. I pray that they will learn to seek the Giver and not the gifts.

Even as adults, we are constantly looking at what God can bless us with, and how can He make our lives more comfortable and easier. It's a little something known as "the prosperity gospel". Best selling books and televangelists market this gospel even to the poorest of poor. Telling you if you just say a specific prayer God will give you prosperity, or if you send in your donation God is going to bless you with material wealth. And God wants you to have the "abundant" life, full of big houses and nice cars. But what John Piper (one of my faves) has to say in this short video, is something we all need to be reminded of.

He is our reward. He has already given us all that we need. He is enough. He is beautiful.


Happy Resurrection Day!