Just as excitedly as children rush from their beds on Easter morning to see what might be awaiting them in their Easter baskets from the Easter bunny, adults have reason to approach this blessed Sunday with similar enthusiasm. The promise of the memory of the stone that was rolled back, revealing an empty tomb brings to all of us the reminder that Christ rose from the dead and God took him back home to be with him. The victory of the resurrection is our guarantee as adults that we can celebrate each year.
For children, it takes time and practice as parents, taking them to church, where they learn the lessons of Holy Week, and learn of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.
It’s hard enough for adults to grasp the concept of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and God Incarnate as all three-in-one. You must understand as fact and truth that all three entities are the same, just in different formations, but I’m still trying to remember how our Sunday School teachers and my parents explained it to me.
As children, we rarely question adults about the answers they give when we ask questions of faith. Parents are always the source of information children ask to help them learn about God, Heaven, faith, and ultimately life and death. Last year Rowen understood that Easter meant the Easter bunny and a trip to church to thank God for giving us His son, Jesus, and that Jesus knew that God would let him die, and then take him to Heaven to be with God, healed and safe forever.
It takes a few years, though, before the telling and the retelling of the Easter story begins to make a dent in the memories of children. What they do remember, though, often is the glorious music that is played. We’re fortunate at the church our family belongs to that we have a wonderful music ministry. When special programs call for it, we have members who are our orchestra for the morning, who beautifully accompany and support the exceptional choir who performs at every single Easter service we set for our large membership.
There’s something that even children resonate with in hearing the anthems proclaimed on Easter. Think back to how it sounds when the brass accentuates the song, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” and children know how to sing the “Alleluia” and the adults sing, “Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia! “Sing ye heavens and earth reply, Alleluia.” Even if you’re not in the choir, it’s fun to sing along with hundreds of other people and feel the joy and renewal of spirit that Easter brings.
There are so many colors to the season of Easter. Pastels are popular for the eggs of every design, lots of white shirts and white pants and white socks for the kiddos. White lilies placed along the altars. Purple banners hanging from the rafters, signifying new life in the church. For the season of Easter, all things are made new again.
For the younger of the men, the clip-on ties make their debut until a few years from now when they learn to either wear a bow tie or tie their very first junior ties. The little girls have the shiniest of patent leather shoes it seems.
The Church often hosts an Easter egg hunt, in keeping with a tradition of sorts, but there is always time to distinguish between the mystique of the Easter bunny and the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection.
At some point in our growing up years, likely by the time between getting our third-grade Bibles and in our sixth-grade confirmation classes, we begin to examine more closely the life, lessons, death, and resurrection of our Lord. At different points in our lives, we might find ourselves trying to grasp the fundamentals of understanding Heavenly miracles and struggling. Children, however, seem to have absolutely no difficulty explaining resurrection to us as adults, if we’ve done a good job of explaining it to them.
Their version goes something like this: Jesus died on a cross for us. After he died, the skies grew dark and everyone was beyond sad, especially his parents and all those who loved him. They wrapped his body carefully in burial garments and laid him in a cave and a very heavy stone was rolled across the opening to keep a barrier between the outside and the shell of the body that remained lifeless.
Three days after his passing, women of the village went to the burial site and found the stone rolled back, and the gravesite wide open. Jesus’ body was no longer there. His Father had come from Heaven and taken Him back to Heaven with him and restored him to life once more. Just as it was written in the Bible. Jesus appeared to His disciples after His death to tell them what had happened. Although there was doubt at first, they became delighted to see Him alive again. We have that very same promise reassuring us that we will all be together again after this life, in Heaven, where there is no sorrow, no tears, no pain, and no mourning.
On this the annual observance of Easter, may we have the strength of faith of the children who derive their faith from us, and who do not question the accuracy, details, or specifics of the “how” of resurrection. Rather, they embrace that which is as written, and therefore is and always will be. May God bless you all abundantly in this season of renewal.
Cody D. Jones ‘02
Owner & Community Member
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