How was your Easter?

So, how was your Easter?  Did you have wonderful weather?  Were you surrounded by friends and family?  Did the Easter Bunny stop by for a visit?  Did you remember the reason for the celebration?    

Holidays seem to sneak up on my lately.  I get to truckin' along, and I completely forget that there is supposed to be a celebration going on!  Last week I just happened to be looking through my stash of books and came across one that I read every Easter called "Six Hours One Friday" by Max Lucado.  If you've never read it, I highly recommend trying to get your hands on it.  Once I ran across it, I promptly sat down and started reading the familiar pages.

On one hand, I'm glad that I am so sure that I have been saved by God's grace & covered in His forgiveness that I don't think about the "why" all the time.  On the other hand, I am ashamed that the "why" isn't more present in my thoughts.  I love chapter 11 in this book because it is filled with the "why".  In this chapter, Lucado retells the story of the prodigal son.  You know, the parable that Jesus tells in Luke about the son who leaves his father, wastes his inheritance, and ends up tending to the pigs in a distant land.  Do you remember how it ends?  The son comes back to the father, thinking that he will be angry & ashamed.  But, the father surprises his son by welcoming him home with open arms.  Lucado puts a wonderful spin on the last part of the story.   He asks the reader to imagine Jesus telling this parable to his people.  Did he use his hands while telling it?  Did he outstretch his arms to demonstrate the father's acceptance?  The author admits that he doesn't know what Jesus did that particular day, but he paints a very clear picture of what he did just a little while later.

"He later stretched his hands as open as he could.  He forced his arms so wide apart that it hurt.  And to prove that those arms would never fold and those hands would never close, he had them nailed open.  They still are."  (Six Hours One Friday pg. 85)

I hope that your Easter was filled with plenty of food & lots of laughter.  I hope that you were able to spend it with the ones that you love the most in this world.  And, I hope that you remembered the reason for the celebration..."That God so loved the world that he gave His only Son" John. 3:16.

Blessings, 

Amy