Easter's Meaning Goes Missing

Walking through one of our big box stores, I found the Easter section up front. All three aisles of it. A glance down the first aisle and I only saw baskets and plastic eggs in every imaginable shape and size - and camouflage, cartoon characters and fluffy bunnies.

Next were shelves of flowers and home decor, covered with more eggs, more bunny rabbits and an occasional carrot.

My baker's antenna led me to the section with sprinkles, cookie cutters and cupcake liners in pretty pastels and patterns. I could have spent longer in this final aisle, dreaming up sweets to deliver all spring, but I still hadn't found what I was looking for. I even backtracked a time or two, thinking I had missed it.

But I hadn't.

Nowhere in any of these "Easter" rows did I find anything referring to Christ. No pretty chalkboard sign, no cross in a dish garden or even a box of note cards. They may have been scattered elsewhere in the store, but the truth was quite clear. I wasn't going to see exactly what I was looking for on these Easter shelves.

It wasn't until I was practically on my hands and knees to pick up the pen I dropped that I saw it. There on the very bottom shelf, squeezed between a stack of rabbit's head-shaped plates and yet another basket was one, single, solitary cross  - as a baking pan. It sat there empty, waiting to be filled with batter and then tucked away once the cake cooled.

Easter's true meaning had gone missing. Completely missing.

I'll be the first to admit that I had baskets every year growing up, and the egg hunt was always so much fun. But I was also immersed in the truth behind the week's events. The church service on Resurrection Sunday was always the focus of the day, hearing the joyful news once again. Jesus Christ is risen indeed! A miracle was performed in those three days that would change the history of mankind forever - our sins would forever be underneath the blood Jesus shed at Calvary.

Isn't this a more wonderful way to celebrate Easter than with bunnies and eggs? Save those for every other day of spring. Instead, let's rejoice that Christ rose on the third day to claim the victory over sin and death. Let's celebrate the coming eternity we can now spend in the presence of God Himself. 

Let's put the meaning of Easter back where it belongs - in the hands of an unchanging God who sacrificed everything just for you, just for me, so that we could have a relationship with Him on earth and spend forever worshipping Him in heaven.

Every morning is Easter morning from now on. And don't you forget it!