Easter Reflections

Easter is a very special holiday to me.  10 years ago I chose Christ and was baptized and confirmed as a Roman Catholic.  The Catholic faith welcomes believers on the eve of Easter at the Easter Vigil.  This service is beautiful and goes from darkness into light.  I mean that in a literal sense.  The service itself starts in darkness and the light of faith (candlelight) is passed to each member in the church until the entire church is illuminated by light.  The beauty of it astounds me and always reminds me of my baptism. 

Faith has not always been in my life.  I did not grow up going to church.  I don’t think I ever really grasped what we were celebrating on Easter.  Christ is risen…that was not something I understood.  Well, will I ever truly comprehend that one?  We always did an egg hunt and spent the day with family.  My parents always gave us an Easter basket.  I love that my parents did those things and those are very happy memories of my childhood. 

I know that discussing faith is taboo in our world today.  Like I said, I was not always a Christian and when people would discuss their Christian faith with me, it made me uncomfortable.  So if anybody is reading this, they may feel like I’m rubbing them the wrong way.  I guess I would just say that that’s okay with me. 

Raising Alexander to understand the meaning of Easter is so very important to me.  I want him love God and understand God’s love for him.  I can’t tell you how many times I question God and his love for me, but am humbly reminded that Jesus died on a cross because of God’s love for His creation.  God handed his Son over to a broken humanity knowing that he would die.  God didn’t have to do this.  He could have wiped us out for all of our sin.  Instead, he chose to let his son pay the debt of our sin.  I never understood how a man that died 2000 years could be literally dying for MY sins.  If he died 2000 years ago, wasn’t he paying for the sins of people during his time?  Nope.  That’s the beauty of God and the cross.  That’s a sacrifice I never want to take for granted or forget.