Easter!

Easter
Easter is a special time of year. Most of us can remember many Easter’s, probably way back in our childhoods. I remember it being a day where we wore a new outfit—and I mean outfit, it always included a dress, stockings, shoes, petticoat, hat, purse and most wonderfully….gloves! I loved the gloves the most! I can still feel them on my hands, pulling them over my fingers, holding my hands out and marveling at how wonderful they made me feel! They transformed my hands into something special—they covered up the mundane and made it marvelous. And the candy! We can’t leave out the candy—those chocolate bunnies, the jelly beans!
And Easter Dinner! the ham and potato salad, green beans, deviled eggs—the list goes on and on.
It was a time for gathering together with family and friends. We always had lots of people over for Easter Dinner. There was laughter, games and fellowship. We would hide the eggs over and over! And I never tired of looking for them.
Now I have a different view of Easter. Over the years my focus has shifted off of me and onto Christ. I’m almost ashamed to say how long that transition has taken—but even though I’ve come so far, I still have a long way to go. That thought made me wonder how I could use scripture to help me focus on Christ throughout the Easter season instead of myself. Here are some things I’ve come up with.
The new outfit, instead of material clothes, I could focus on the armor of God:
For the Dress 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
And the shoes: 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
Then the purse: 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
And the hat: 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:14-17
That takes care of everything but the gloves, I thought about this scripture for the gloves:
12Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Can’t you just feel that totally enveloping you? Like a glove on your hand?

Then we are left with the food!
The candy was easy—
Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
The real food was a little more challenging to my walk.
1 Peter 2:2-3
2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Hebrews 5:11-14
11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

I don’t want to forget the people—they are the most special memories, because so many of them are gone now. They are with Jesus in heaven.
Hebrews 12:1
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
And in the Apostle’s Creed when we say what we believe: and include the communion of the saints, we are recognizing all those who are in Christ are there with us in communion.

I’ll close by wishing you a Happy Easter! And encouraging you to take time and focus on the importance of Easter and Christ’s sacrifice for all of us.
He came and gave himself for us:
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17