By Doris Schroeder
To many people in our country today, the most wonderful holiday of all time is merely celebrated with the Easter dinner, the hunting of Easter eggs and the “springing out” in new Easter finery, and perhaps attendance of a once-a-year church service
It really wasn’t that way when I was a little girl. Oh, we hunted Easter eggs all right…out on our grandparent’s family farm. The eggs were hard boiled and had been colored by dipping in a hot color solution. We hunted them in the greening field in front of the big two story farm house…the older ones helping those of us who were younger to look in the green blades of the wheat crop
We tasted life in a grand scale. We did have a wonderful farm Easter dinner with big slices of farm ham, farm-grown potatoes, home-made bread and pie, orange and green Jell-o, and all the tasty tidbits of our grandparent’s garden on our plate.
We enjoyed our family time around the big farm table, in spite of us children adhering to the old time adage, “children are to be seen but not heard!” The table manners were different, too, and my grandfather still did like the men of that day, pouring his coffee into his saucer and slurping it down to show his wife it was good! Of course, at that time we accepted that as normal.
Most all of us had attended our church that morning and heard the Easter story…how God had sent his only son down to this earth so he could be born of a virgin, raised as a child and become a man on this earth and go through the things we go through and still be God. He was worshipped and ridiculed and still he remained steadfast. He was made fun of and yet he did not answer back in anger.
Of course you could even say he had been “bullied.” Still, he had not demanded his rights and sought compensation for what they had done to him.
If he had not been God’s son, he would have cursed at the evildoers and told them where to go! Why didn’t he? He was God’s son and that made him perfect. . They had made us humans when they created the world. They wanted to enjoy our company and we theirs. What happened?
When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, Satan told them lies about what would happen to them if they ate from a certain tree that God had told them not to touch. She and Adam succumbed and because of that, the sin nature entered into the world. We all know what that is, don’t we? Whether we like it or not, we are born with a sin nature.
Sin cannot enter heaven and so God needed to make a way to help us get there and the only way was for his son Jesus to come down to this earth, take on all our sin when he died on the Cross, and rise again. If we believe this and accept him into our life personally, we can have his help and be assured of going to heaven.
when we die here on earth.
By the time I was twelve, I understood it myself and asked Jesus to come into my life. It was then Easter became real to me and I have absolutely no doubt I‘ll go to heaven when I leave this earth.
Oh, it certainly didn’t make me perfect, hubby can vouch for that! I can “get out of fellowship.” This happens when I don’t stay in touch with the Central person in my life by reading the Bible often and staying in touch. Satan sends little thoughts to my brain and I compromise. It is when I realize that and ask God’s forgiveness again that I can again be in communion with him and enjoy sweet camaraderie…and peace.
We are living in days of much uncertainty, in the workforce, our daily lives, and of course, in our government. Humans want to leave God out of the picture entirely. They don’t want to have a conscience because then they can’t have the fun of making fools out of themselves.
Easter is the best time to reflect on the peace that God offers to us. which we can either believe or not. It is not forced on us but is ours for the asking. We can have the piece of peace that Easter offers but only if we want it! Just think, we can actually have God’s peace and yes, even be happy
Doris welcomes your comments and can be reached at [email protected]
