So much better than the bunny!

We were walking through the mall, my six year old and I, while my teen daughter happily traipsed around the mall with her gal pals.  In the center court was the giant Easter display, complete with an Easter bunny and a place for children to line up for pictures.

"What's that, mommy?"

"A place for children to get their picture taken with the Easter bunny," I replied as we kept on walking towards the area of the mall that had been set up for children to play and parents to take a break.

"Don't they know the Easter bunny isn't real?  That Easter is about Jesus?" she questioned.  Now don't get me wrong, I don't judge anyone for enjoying the Easter bunny tradition.  My older children delighted in discovering their Easter baskets that had been skillfully hidden by the bunny when they were younger.  But one Easter my husband and I looked around us as the children devoured their chocolate bunnies and realized that they had totally missed the point of Easter.  That we had failed to share the importance of what were were celebrating.  And our Easter celebration became less about the bunny and more about Jesus.

In a world full of hurting people, it seems especially important to share the truth of Easter.  While a bunny may bring temporary relief (it is chocolate after all!) from the things that get us down, eventually the chocolate is gone and reality sets in again.  But if we instead focus on Jesus we see that Easter is about so much more than the bunny.  It's about one man, who was the Son of God, choosing you and I over His own comfort, even His own life.  It's about one man enduring pain, shame and rejection so that one day we won't have to.  I don't know about you, but for me that is a much better message to share with my children than the bunny.

Today is Good Friday.  A day that over 2,000 years ago must have felt anything but good to those who were there.  I can only imagine how it felt to watch the man that had become one of my closest friends, the man I believed to be God's own Son, hang on a cross and later be buried in a tomb - dead.  But it is that act that brings us so much hope today.  Hope that there is more to this life that what we are presently experiencing.  Hope that God can overcome everything!  Because if death can't hold him (and we know it can't) nothing else can either!

This Easter especially that thought brings me comfort.  It's a message I want to share with you.  No matter what you are going through, no matter how difficult or dark things may appear, this isn't the end of the story.  That is what Easter is really about.  If you know Jesus, if you have accepted the gift He freely gave on the cross, then you know how the story ends - in victory.  So don't focus on the here and now, it is fleeting.  Instead, focus on the truth that you are loved so much that He couldn't let anything separate you from Him, not even death.  No bunny can even compare to that!

*originally published on Coffee with Christ