I remember, somewhat strangely, what I think of as being the ‘remainders’ of holidays past, sometimes as much as I remember the days themselves. This, likely, is a bad thing, and probably comes from my many years in retail management, along with our own big family celebrations of those holidays. Families have always had a certain amount of ‘clean up’ to do after any of the major holidays, and stores have many times more of that cleanup. If you think it’s work to pack decorations away, try doing it a thousand times over, quantity-wise. That’s what people in retail are faced with, after every single holiday. I have always disliked decorating, both at home and at work, and have always doubly-disliked ‘un’-decorating. When my older kids were little, ‘tinsel’ was something that everyone decorated their Christmas tree with, and something that everyone sucked up with their vacuum cleaner, at least until the following summer. At the department stores I managed, Christmas items like tinsel were packed away, and reordered before even Easter had arrived. Holidays really were a never-ending story. And, speaking of Easter...
Easter is one of the holidays that I always think of as a 'sugar and plastic' day. Christmas is big, and in most homes the decorations are stored and saved until 'next year'. Thanksgiving is mostly a big meal, and, hopefully, some big thankfulness. But Easter is different. For kids it is largely celebrated with sugar and plastic. There are plastic eggs for the Easter egg hunt, and even plastic grass to put in plastic Easter baskets, for those eggs when they are found. There are lots of sugar sources, like jelly beans, marshmallow peeps, and, of course, big chocolate bunnies. I always thought it was funny, that 'filled' baskets had hollow bunnies. Yes, for most kids, Easter is about eggs, those hollow bunnies, and fun but hollow stories.
Now it’s over for another year. If you are in an average American home as you read this column, you can probably look around the room you are in, right now, and see some now-empty plastic eggs. Hey mom’s and dads, don’t despair that another holiday has ended, and your kids are one Easter closer to being grown and gone. I have very good news.
Firstly, I hope that the kids in your home have been taught the true meaning of Easter; that it is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the grave, of his full payment for their sin, and of the free gift of eternal life. If they haven’t been taught this, show your kids one of those hollow, once- filled, but now empty eggs. Tell them that, right now, in Jerusalem, there is a once filled, but now empty tomb.
1 comment:
Have you heard of Resurrection Eggs in which each plastic egg contains something symbolizing a part of the resurrection story? I did that with my children as well as in a previous church's children's ministry. I even made a miniature crown of thorns from the branches of an American Barberry bush. It's one way to make learning about the Gospel fun and interactive.
My memories of Easter as a child include plastic buckets instead of Easter baskets, because we lived just 25 or more minutes from the ocean. So along with getting a new dress each year sewn by our mother, we also received a new bucket for the coming summer. :)
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