Happy Easter

Easter is only a few days away, and that means I will be hunting eggs filled with money and candy very soon. Truth: I am almost 22 years old and still hunt Easter eggs every year. Yes, I will go to Easter service at my church, and I will enjoy a nice Easter lunch with my family, but it seems like this "holiday" has lost its meaning somehow. Just like Christmas. The two major holidays out of the entire year that have been set apart for Christians to celebrate the Gospel have become secular.

For those of you not familiar with the story, Good Friday is the anniversary of Jesus' crucifixion for proclaiming to be the Savior/Messiah that was sent by God to the world. Three days later, Jesus was raised back to life. Easter is the celebration of his resurrection. In Spanish, Easter is called "Pascua" (PAH-skwah), which is literally translated to mean "Passover," not Easter. There's your fun fact for the day.

Going back to the Old Testament when God's chosen people, the Hebrews, were in Egyptian captivity, God sent plagues against the Egyptians so that they would let the Hebrews out of slavery. The last plague sent was that all of the firstborn children were to be killed in the night by the spirit of God unless the door to a family's house was marked with lamb's blood. At the sight of this blood, the spirit would PASSOVER the house, and those inside would be spared. Because of this, Passover is widely celebrated by Jews, but Christians tend to put the focus of the holy week on the resurrection day (Easter). [Thought: Why don't more Christians celebrate Passover, too? The first Christians were Jews.] Easter Sunday always follows Passover because Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection occurred while he was in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.

I write this history lesson to give a better picture of what Easter is really for. It is great to take a break from work and school and spend time with the family, but I feel like at the dinner table on Sunday or at some point in the day, someone should mention the significance of this holiday. For Christians, the true purpose of this holiday is to represent Jesus' resurrection, which brings salvation to those who believe in him. But there is much more to this holiday.

I feel like the purpose of this holiday could also be to simply take a scheduled pause in our lives and spend time with our families. Honestly, we can celebrate the resurrection whenever we want. Easter is special because of what people do on it. This will be my 21st Easter, and I have only spent two Easters away from my family. Easter Sunday of my senior year of high school was spent in Hong Kong. Easter Sunday of my sophomore year of college was spent at a children's home in Montevideo, Uruguay. If I was in the US, I would have most definitely gone home for the weekend to spend Easter with my family. Sunday will be a special day because I will eat some great home cooking, and I will hunt eggs with my sister and cousin. But I will do it with my family. Celebrating the resurrection is important to me, but spending time with my family is important, too.