First Baptist Church of Herndon

A Way To Celebrate

Linda Soller | Apr 17, 2017

Happy Easter! Did you have a wonderful Easter? Did you find a way to celebrate? Most people think of a celebration as a party or festive event. That’s fine for some things, but it’s a different celebration for Easter.  As a child, I remember associating Easter with a basket from the Easter Bunny, and a new dress/hat/gloves to wear to church. Yes, I know that dates me. After church my immediate family would go to be with our extended family for a big meal. There was always an Easter egg hunt, and there was always one egg lost. I loved seeing the church packed with people and everyone in their finery. We children floated effortlessly between the real meaning of Easter and the play time of Easter, as children are prone to do. The adults treated it as a time to be thankful for their family, a time to celebrate life. Those are such good strong memories.

Today many families treat the week before Easter as a vacation week. Why not? The kids are out of school and winter has finally started to taper off. I get it. We didn’t do that when I was a child, and I can’t even remember if we had the whole week off from school or not. So, when it came to raising my family it didn’t occur to me to mess with our traditional celebration of Easter. Don’t get me wrong. I think vacations are fine. I just wonder if I had gone on vacation the week before Easter if I would have still found a way to celebrate Easter. I know me, and I get wrapped up in my vacation destination and its distractions. I fear I would have lost Easter in the excitement of the vacation, or maybe in the demands of the travel to and from my destination. I wonder what my memories of Easter would be today.

My intent is not to make anyone feel bad about how they celebrate Easter. I simply want to encourage you to find a way to celebrate Easter no matter where you are. Don’t let the trappings of our modern world, our rushed pace, and our needs for diversion overcome our faithful celebration of Easter. Believers must find a way to celebrate no matter where they are. Did you hear the church bells ringing on Easter? They were ringing for you because He is risen! 

Make this a great week!  Happy Easter!    :o)  Linda