Lent Reflections
As I pray, confess, repent and seek my way through Lent this year, I have come to ponder how to engage my family in preparing for Easter. I want to build up traditions and lessons that will carry on through the generations about what the Resurrection truly means. I want Lent to be as big of a deal as Advent and for Easter to be as heavily anticipated as Christmas for our household.
I grew up with Easter egg hunts and a baskets laden with faux grass and enough chocolate and jellybeans to last normal people a month. Personally, I can have my Easter candy handled within a couple of weeks and that is if I’m rationing it. I had so much fun with these events as a child and really do not take issue with allowing my daughters to enjoy such things as egg hunts as she grows. Still, how can I keep those modern celebratory markets, like the Easter Bunny, small and keep my eyes fixated on Jesus?
Easter eggs, tulips and the like are reflective of new life but can easily become the exciting part of the Lent and Resurrection season if we allow it. This is where we must check our hearts to keep the main thing the main thing. The cross is the centerpiece of our faith! He is alive and because of that, we are too! Praise the Lord!
I grew up as a farm girl. Spring is a season that is definitely worthy of celebration! It is when the harvest time ends and the time to plant new things such as gardens and trees begins again. The birth of new life such as calves, sheep, chicks (the egg thing..) and other livestock becomes prevalent. The labor continues in its heavy demand but shifts in duty from sending out (i.e. vegetation/mature cattle) to nurturing and raising up (i.e. tending the newly planted or born). The warmth of the day is sweet and refreshing for the farmer and necessary for healthy growth of whatever seeds and saplings you have planted. The death of winter brings a pleasant step to the work day and you remember to appreciate the sunshine. The season is a gift and a busy kind of rest. It is a fresh start!
Still...
No planting = No harvest
No birth = No death
No death = No resurrection
No resurrection = No life
No life = No planting
The whole year needs this season as much as it needs the cooler harvest seasons. It is the glory of God in that He tells His own story through His creation!
"I tell you," He replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:40
How much louder should we shout in our own voice and experience of what Jesus did for us that Easter morning so many years ago? Are growing trees and hatching eggs bringing greater worship than the saved believer? It must never be so! Believers, WE ARE SAVED!!!!
"I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live." Psalm 104:33
Easter eggs...lilies...bunnies...warm weather. Look for the love of Christ everywhere! They may be small things but let them be reminders to us of the One who is worthy.