Easter is not a time for groping through dusty, musty tombs to disprove spontaneous generation or even to prove life eternal. It is a day to fan the ashes of dead hope, a day to banish doubts and seek the slopes where the sun is rising, to revel in the faith which transports us out of ourselves and the dead past into the vast and inviting unknown. -Author Unknown
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Easter is my favorite holiday. Not only is it warm and okay to wear matching floral dresses, but there’s so much less pressure to EMBRACE THE SEASON and DECK THE HALLS during Easter (I’m looking at you, Christmas). Sure, there are Easter baskets, but who doesn’t love assembling and receiving a wicker container of assorted chocolates and athletic socks?
Easter also marks the beginning of true spring with its daffodils, baby lambs, and handfuls of kittens. It’s a fresh start to the year. A time when we actually start on those New Year’s resolutions; spend more time outside, take more walks, clean the attic, stop looking at my phone.
It’s a magical time.
Admittedly these past few months have been rough. I let winter get the best of me this year as I skulked around the house, complaining about my ovaries and crying over every blustery snowstorm. You may also remember I weaned my son in the dead of winter. There should be a warning label on such things. Something like: Do Not Mix Weaning with Seasonal Affective Disorder and Hormonal Drugs. YOU WILL GAIN FIFTEEN POUNDS.
As an aside, it seems this Holy Week is sharing its time with marriage equality week, complete with red equal signs and 1 man + 1 woman stickers plastered all over social media. The church (and our nation) is divided. We want to understand each other, but the conviction that we are right and they are wrong has made us crabby. It’s made me crabby. I find myself out of breath from the overwhelming desire to explain that if no one ever challenged religious authority, there’d be no laws against child abuse or domestic abuse. There’d be no democracy, no public schools, no women’s rights, no improvements to science and medicine, no abolition of slavery*.
Jesus himself challenged religious authority. He stood up to the Pharisees like a lunatic hippie and reminded us that we are the church. All of us. We are the church and we are each other’s.
For believers in Christ, Holy Week is a time to remember that the love of God is stronger than all the hate and violence we bring to this world. A time to release our fears of change, of being different, of an angry god–and embrace the truth of Jesus. The truth of love.
A perfect time for marriage equality.
No matter what your religious beliefs, the story of Easter is a story of hope and a story of miracles.
Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there.
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*Leviticus 25:44-46: Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.
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Image: Silk Tie Easter Eggs made using these instructions via Queen Martha.
