I can only hope that each person anywhere has some foundation that strengthens them to be a strong helpful person in the world. Years ago I chose for Christianity to be my guide and measuring rod. That said, this is probably the week out of the whole year where I am taught and retaught the life changing story. Memories are varied and run a gauntlet from lows to high.
The larger arc of receiving started small for Easter. Presents were a part of the day, yet not the overwhelming surprises and even the ability to request that came with Christmas. Count on a basket, eggs, candy and you’ve covered the morning. New clothes for a coming season were important. My mother believed in “an Easter snap,” one more cold spell. At the sunrise service in the city park, other girls appeared gorgeous and shivering in their ruffled short sleeve dresses, while I was able to stand, embarrassed yet warm, in my woolen skirt and a long sleeve houndstooth jacket which would be available for the event of winter in October.
I never came to accept an egg laying bunny. I fed the chickens and knew where eggs came from. Dying eggs was messy and too many specific directions. The only part I really liked was cutting squares from the Sunday comics, covering them with a cloth dipped in vinegar water and releasing it to find a picture on the egg. We had a big egg hunt on the school grounds. Some one usually uncovered the unfound egg on a hot day in May providing a perfect example for the smell of sulfur.
Write your own paragraph on Easter Sunday. Some travel; some don’t. Some have elaborate meals; others eat out. Church is a focal activity or should be. My favorite part of this season begins Thursday night. I like the idea that before all falls apart, Jesus has a meal that ends up being a teaching session and a reminder that all will be together again for some meal like this. For years – maybe twenty – our family had a “Friends, Family, Widows, and Orphans,” Easter meal. The net began with single adults who didn’t have family in town. It also included families with young children who needed someone to serve as a grandparent on site substitution. Some older adults couldn’t travel for this particular holiday. The menu was simple enough that all could be put on the table soon after church was over. One year we got a phone call, “Are you eating? Can I come?” As so many things, need and location changed. Now we will meet at another house with a much smaller group. I will still bake rolls, as my mother did, and remember the purpose of this meal.
“the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take eat, this is My body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of Me.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-24
Let Me Tell Ya 