I just got back from Walmart, where the Easter Season is in full bloom. There are chocolate rabbits as far as the eye can see. The assortment was stunning. There was a texting rabbit, a rapper rabbit, a caramel-filled one, a peanut butter-filled one, fluffy ones in a rainbow of colors, jumping ones, and even rabbits that poop out chocolate candies. Let's just say, if there was a rabbit you were looking for that wasn't there, it might not exist. Rabbits, check.
There were also eggs. Real ones and chocolate ones and marshmallow ones, and even Krabby Patty ones, which I do not understand AT ALL. There were eggs that had lip gloss in it, marketed for the "under five" age group. Who lets their toddler wear lip gloss? Probably the same ones who design and manufacture sleazy dresses for young teens. There! I said it! Just because my daughter no longer fits in little girl sizes does NOT mean that she wants every inch of her skin to show, and neither does her mother!!! I really don't think I'm a prude, I'd just like to buy my daughters nice Easter dresses that aren't embarrassing to wear in front of a priest! Anyway, my train has jumped the track.
Here's what God put on my heart tonight. We set out our Easter baskets on the night before Easter, hoping to have it filled with something sweet. What do we really hope to find in that basket? I saw a lot of possibilities at the Walmart. (Maybe even purchased a few.) But the truth is that no amount of Tootsie Rolls or Malted Milk Eggs will make us truly happy. It all seems as empty and as hollow as "Dude" the rapper bunny. Even the really big pre-packaged basket with the doll and the Skittles, is just a substitution of what the real gift was and is and will always be...Jesus.
We went to the Easter Egg Hunt put on by the Methodist Church here in town, and this little girl was hunting eggs with some friends. "I hope this is the year I find out what Easter is really all about." She said. I bit my tongue, not knowing what her family's personal beliefs were. Looking back, that was a bad choice. She's at the Easter Egg Hunt for the CHURCH! (That might make it okay to mention Jesus. It's not a school function.) I just wanted to cry knowing that this girl made it to the age of 7 without knowing how LOVED she is! Every cell of my being wanted to tell her about Jesus and how he loved us SO much that he died so we wouldn't have to suffer. I wanted to give her every bit of Jesus, and fill her with a desire to know more and more about this incredible person who came to love us and give us the message that God has not forgotten us, but chooses to live in us still.
That's what is bothering me. THAT is the gift I want to give my children Every Easter and EVERY Christmas. Nothing I can give or do or be is as good as that. I look at the gifts that I choose for them, and they are fine by worldly standards, but how do you wrap eternal salvation? Mary wrapped it in swaddling clothes and laid it in a manger. Then, thirty-some years later, Joseph of Arimathea wrapped it in clean linen and put him in a tomb hewn from rock. God the Father wrapped it in flesh. I just want them to KNOW that. I want them to know that when their hearts break with disappointment, they never break alone. I want them to know that when their friends turn on them, (and some of them will) they are still not alone. I need them to know that they are loved beyond what Luke and I can ever love them, and we love them an indescribable amount. I want them to know that the Creator of the Universe cares enough about them that he remembers how many hairs are on their head. I want to wrap up a burning Love of God and give it to them, and have it be their favorite.
Faith is a gift that only God can give. You can't buy it at Walmart. Faith, however, is exactly what I hope your basket is full of this Easter. I pray that it is overflowing with Faith, Hope and Love.
(and maybe a few black jelly beans.)
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