What does Easter mean to you? Eggs, Baskets? Egg Hunt? Crafts? Candy? Cross? Vacation? Ham? Church? Family? Jesus?
Tell us what Easter means to you?
Clay Pot Jesus pattern and many other great ideas and crafts can be found on this site:
Clay Pot Jesus Craft for Kids – Christian Easter Clay Pot Craft – Jesus Clay Pot Craft – Kaboose.com
thedailylily.com 
Easter means the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave to me. It means Jesus died on a cross for the sins of everyone in the world. It means that He didn’t stay on the cross, or stay in the tomb but that He rose up on the third day. It means He is alive and He wants to live in us if we ask Him into our hearts and give us eternal Life.
Easter means a day to ask someone to go to church with you who may not be going any other time of the year. Easter means an opportunity to tell others about what ‘Easter means to you’.
When I was a child, Easter meant getting all dressed up in a new coat as we lived in the north and there was still snow on the ground most Easter Sundays We would dream of having a new SPRING suit or dress, but even when we were able to purchase a new outfit, it usually ended up being covered up with a winter coat because it was too cold to go to church without a coat. Then there would be colored eggs and chocolate bunnies at home in our Easter baskets. We three children would always get an Easter basket and Sister Grandma and Daddy got chocolates which they both loved. There was always a lovely dinner after church ….and then baskets. (Or maybe before???0 🙂
But now that i am a born again Christian…these are just fond but faded memories. Oh, yes, I still love chocolate bunnies at Easter, but I love the Work of the cross infinitely more. I think of what Christ did on the cross for me. My heart fills up with emotion when I think of the crucified Christ and His sacrifice for me while I had gone along fretting about the weather and if I could wear my new dress.
Now, to me, Resurrection Sunday means the true joy of the risen Christ in my heart and in my life and as Debi says above, should be a time to tell others about Him. Will I do it this Easter? I am praying that God may grant all of us the boldness to proclaim the risen Christ and the price He paid for our salvation.
When I was young, my mother told us the Easter story through flannel graph picturers and we would prepare Easter Eggs. We would then have everyone over to our house for a ham lunch with all the fixings and a coconut cake or lemon meringue pie for dessert. When I had children of my own it would mean again coloring eggs and always going to church to hear the Easter story of our Lord Jesus and how he laid down his life so that we could live with him someday. Like my mother I became a Sunday School Teacher and loved telling the story through the use of books (store bought and self written), hands-on activity of making pretzels (represented prayers asking for forgiveness), and opening two Resurrection Eggs each Sunday. My students could hardly wait until the last egg, which was empty. Maybe someone out there knows what that represents. It is near and dear to all our hearts.
No incarnation no resurrection,
New dress, shoes, socks, and pocket book. Going to church. Easter egg hunts and baskets with lots of candy. The basket came after church on Sunday and the egg hunt came on Monday. Of course we colored our eggs for the hunt.
I loved going to church as a child (still do) because we showed our new clothes off to our friends and they to us. I loved seeing the beautiful pastels, and rainbow of colors that would come out on Easter Sunday. Jesus always seemed happier on Easter because we all looked good and seem to love each other more because He had risen and risen indeed.
We had baked ham and deviled eggs for lunch and many, many people gathered around our dining table where my Mother had prepared the food and table to honor Jesus. Many times our Pastor and wife with many other church friends would honor our home. Easter always reminded me that Jesus was at church but He also was in our home.
I love Easter because it gives me a chance to honor and model faith so the whole world knows about Jesus being God and His dying for the sins of the world and rising again as He said He would. He makes me stand in awe of His Coming Again because He said He would. Our Christian Faith is so exciting, filled with great expectations as we rise and look for His soon coming again!
I always love the Easter lilies that appear in stores and garden centers and decorate churches. I remember that to my grandmother, it was just not Easter unless she had a potted lily. After the blooms faded and the foliage yellowed, she would plant it in her lily garden and tell me that that buried bulb would ‘rise’ again and next year there would be another lily blooming in her garden. It was exciting to count the lilies sprouting each year. There was a security in observing that enduring cycle..a reminder of the past but a hope for the future. Lessons of Jesus, found in a garden.
It sounds like your grandmother planted the seed of faith and of lovely flowers in the childhood garden of your heart, Debi. I love that she told you the buried bulb would “rise” again……. like the buried Christ who rose again. Seems you were a lily-counter from days of “old” or should I say “youth”! Your Grandmother was a good Bible teacher in her own way. “Train up a child in the way that she should go and when she is old she shall not depart.”
Love the Easters of yesterday(s). What will the Easter of 2010 look like around the world and in our home? I need new glasses and new ways of hearing to recognize Easter in 2010. I will be on the look-out to see and experience the joy of such a magnificent marker in history and for eternity.
The Cross of Christ is indeed THE magnificent Marker in time and eternity. The impact of the Cross on humankind is unfathomable in its influence and effect in history. But the Cross is TODAY and Forever, as Sara said…Eternity. There would be NO RESURRECTION without the Nativity, as Gary said above. And without the Nativity there would be no cross and without the cross there would be no death and without the death of Christ there would be no resurrection.
This is GOD’s perfect plan for the redemption of mankind and it is still in effect today. Whosoever would come to the cross of Christ’s death and receive Him as Lord and Savior will also come to the Resurrection and the Light. That is HIS promise and it is in effect even today, as we read this blog. This Easter we are closer to Eternity than ever before in History. Let us come to the cross that we might come to the resurrection.
In my Sunday school class we would make crosses out of limbs to represent what Jesus had done for us. The main limb was placed in green dyed Plaster of Paris. We would place silk flowers in and around the cross. We always did this two weeks before Easter. We were always so amazed that the green dye had changed to red in places representing the blood the Lord Jesus shed on the cross for our sins so we could be with him in heaven one day.
Agreed, MG…As we mark our spot in Eternity…we wait with expectancy for the trumpet to sound and Jesus to step out and greet us and we sit down and realize we are in the wedding party of the marriage super of the Lamb. Oh! What A Day~ History will never ever be the same.
The scriptures tells us to rejoice that our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Luke 10:17-20 “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” And Revelation records, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Rev. 20:15
Easter says, let the family of God work together in birth pain to enlarge the family of God and add to Heaven’s book of genealogy!
Revelation 3:5 ‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. (NASB ©1995)
“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” Matt 28:6 (NIV)
And Peter explains in Acts 13:29 “Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.”
The cross was and still is a crossroads. We can come to the foot of it and lay down our sins, knowing He bore them all on that tree. And then, we, too, will be seated with Him in heavenly places, freed from a cold tomb of eternal confinement apart from the Life and presence of God. Matt 28:6 is encouraging for all who will come.
I wrote a song a while ago which expresses the message of Matthew 28:6.
THE THIRD DAY © mgh
I)
WHY SEEK YE THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD?
BEHOLD, HE IS RISEN JUST AS HE SAID.
SEE THE BINDING CLOTHS LYING WHERE HE LAY
BUT THERE IS NO ONE THERE, FOR THIS IS THE THIRD DAY!
II)
WHY TROUBLE YOURSELVES ABOUT THE STONE?
SEE, HIS IS RISEN! SEE, HIS IS GONE!
SEE THE EMPTY TOMB, THE STONE’S BEEN ROLLED AWAY
AND THERE IS NO ONE THERE FOR THIS IS THE THIRD DAY.
AND HE’S ALIVE! MESSIAH’S ALIVE! HE’S ALIVE!
(bridge)
VICTORY SWALLOWED UP TRAGEDY
BRINGING FORTH LIBERTY AND FREEDOM, TRUTH AND MAJESTY
BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THE LIFE, THE WAY
HE’S RISEN FROM THE DEAD; IT’S JUST AS HE HAS SAID
FOR THIS IS THE THIRD DAY
III)
FOR DEATH AND THE GRAVE ARE OVERCOME
HE’S PURCHASED IMMORTALITY FOR ALL OF HUMANITY
SO RECEIVE THE LIFE OF GOD’S ETERNAL SON
SIN HAS BEEN WASHED AWAY, FOR THIS IS THE THIRD DAY
AND HE’S ALIVE! MESSIAH’S ALIVE! HE’S ALIVE! HE’S ALIVE
HE ROSE ON THE THIRD DAY!
Reading David Teems this morning, he writes that God’s Love was ‘first cause’. It made me think…not only is God’s Love first cause but it’s (He’s) First Responder.
The Cross looks back in time, is set in this time and looks forward in time to Christ’s return. The Cross is eternal. People throughout the ages who have asked God for a sign, He gave Jonah’s experience as a sign; three days in the belly of darkness and then a tumultuous release from darkness of the tomb. The sign is the Cross that unites all God’s people that He has ordained since the beginning of time to belong to Him.
When man disobeyed the God Who created him through Love and fell into
darkness, God’s response was and IS THE CROSS OF CHRIST and redemption.
Really enjoying singing MG’s song and reading the stories of The Passion of Jesus. I love reading about the yesterdays of Jesus, the todays and the forever of Jesus. Hebrews 18:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” O’ What a Savior! He gave His life blood for me. I heard Brian Free in person sing this song, “O What a Savior” just recently. And, he delivered it! What a gifted singer. MG, maybe you should consider submitting your song, “The Third Day,” to Brian Free to sing.
Because of Jesus and His relationship with me; I can leave the past, live in today, and not worry about the tomorrows. Yes, we can sing, “O What a Savior.”
How Beautiful is the Body of Christ. Let us worship together:
I enjoyed “HOW BEAUTIFUL”. I also wrote to Brian Free and Assurance.
I will wait with EXPECTANCY to hear from him. Thanks for the tip and encouragement.
Beautiful words to your song MG. I particularly like the part, ‘it’s just as He has said’. That assurance that all that God has said and promised will be ‘just as He has said’, is a rock we can stand on, a great hope.
And the song Sara shared was lovely and inspiring and really blended with the picture of the cross with the cloth draped on it. It sparks an expectency, a thought…that He’s not on the cross anymore, but He left a part of His clothing as a reminder that He’ll be back…He will be returning soon.
How Beautiful was very uplifting and so is MG’s song the Third Day. It reminds me of the promise in Isaiah 40:31
New International Version (©1984)
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
We have a hope – Jesus! Jesus who stands by us even if none other will.
Jesus who laid down his life so that we would have eternal life with him.
Jesus who stands by us when the winds of the world start blowing against our being – Jesus is there.
Thank you Jesus for coming to us as Christ, Lord, and Savior!
We place are hope in you and we Stand watching for the day of your return!
Sara,
I remember growing up, and when Easter rolled around, my sister and I always got a new Easter dress to wear to church. Of course, there was always a chocolate bunny and basket, for us too. But to me, Easter is about remembering what Christ did, at Calvary, for all mankind.
As we should remember it, everyday.
Everyday, since He lives in us! Is that right?
Speaking of Jesus living, I like to read the accounts in Like 24 of how Jesus, after He rose from the dead, came back and appeared to His disciples. He took care to really show them that he was alive. He spoke with them on the road to Emmaus (vs. 15); He told them to look and even handle His hands and feet so that they could know it was He Himself (vs. 39); and then He ate broiled fish and some honeycomb with them (vs 42). Yes, He is gloriously alive.
THE THIRD DAY has been sent to Brian Free & Assurance per their request and I pray that God will use it to bless the Body of Christ and all who hear it.
Easter is the CROWN JEWEL of our Christian relationship with God Almighty. The Nativity was of necessity to bring forth the perfect plan of God to redeem His people from sin, death and Hell. But the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ALPHA & OMEGA, is the “piece de resistance” of the eternal master plan of God. Hallelujah what a Savior! He perfectly fulfilled and was obedient to what His Father had established with Him before the beginning of time. A Way Home for you and me. This is a song about that
that I have written THE WAY HOME
THE WAY HOME © mgh
If you believe in me as I believe in you
If you will trust in me and my Father, too
If you’ll come out of the dark to a life that’s new
There is a way home for you
You’re like a little lamb that has gone astray
It’s getting darker now and you have lost your way
If you will hear My voice you’ll hear Me say
There is a way home for you…and it is My way
I cry out to you from a bloody cross
To you who cry, to you the lost
My life for yours was what it cost
To make a way home for you
Now Love has risen from the dead
To give you life, as I have said
It was my Father’s precious blood I shed
To make a way home for you
And it is My way
We made a way home for you.
And it is My way.
Right, Sara.
MG, It would be great hearing some of the great singers sing some of your songs.
Hey Cickenfarmer, what about the bunny? How did he hop into this story?
Well, I really didn’t understand why a Bunny hid eggs until I researched the Easter Bunny. The origin of the Easter Bunny was in Alsace and the Upper Rhineland ( both in the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation and Southwestern Germany) in the early 1600s. The tradition came to America from Germany in the 1700s by a German Settler. The reason the tradtion uses a bunny and eggs is because birds lay eggs in early Spring and bunnies have babies in early Spring. These symbols are used because of the rising fertility of the earth of the Vernal Equinox. Of course bunnies will be bunnies and eggs will be eggs but the real reason for the season is the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Noah was around three years old, he watch a cartoon of Jesus from the cross to the grave. When Jesus rose from the grave, Noah ran around the house so excited yelling He’s Alive, Jesus is ALIVE! The window was up and Noah ran to the window and yelled to our neighbor, hey Mr. JD Jesus is alive! He was so excited that Jesus is alive that he had to shout it to the community. So let’s get excited because Jesus is Alive and He is coming back soon.
Hey there, Cickfarmer, I see you have completed your homework. Now that is modeling a good example to all. You read the question, researched, and gave us the reason for the bunny and eggs in the Easter Story from your vantage point.
But, what do you mean by bunnies will be bunnies and eggs will be eggs? Maybe, we should ask your son, Noah? And, Ms. Wendy, why would Noah be so excited that Jesus is alive. What does it mean to a neighbor that Jesus is alive?
Sara, Bunnies will continues to give birth in early Spring. Eggs will continue to hatch during early Spring. Noah was so excited that Jesus is alive he want to shout it to everyone in sight. It is exciting that we serve a living savior. We should all be shouting to our neighbors. It reminds me of how excited the people were when Jesus rode through on a donkey. They told Jesus to slient the crowd’s worship. Jesus said that if He did the walls would cry out praises. So we can shout it out or the walls will cry out that Jesus is Lord. He is has risen and He is alive… Praise Jesus! He is alive!
CF, Yes, Jesus is alive and alive forevermore! What a mighty God we serve to think He made and created and provided so many things for our pleasure. The gifts and talents of the artisans that create beautiful, cute, fuzzy bunnies for us to hug. Writers that write bunny stories that give us joy to read. And, those that make those great big peanut butter chocolate eggs for our taste buds to savor.
Yes, the bunnies will continue to give birth. Eggs will hatch. Nature has a way to surprise us with delight with each bunny and egg. Delight, joy and pleasure has surrounded us with glee at the reality of the birth, death and resurrection of a Savior that is living, available and desiring to join with us in our daily celebrations as well as our sorrows. Yes, let me join Noah and shout, He is Alive, my Jesus is alive, and alive forever more.
Our Lord Jesus, have mercy on us, our nation and nations of the world, I pray!