2 minute read
Rejoicing in the Good News
Easter has been my favorite holiday for many years. Growing up, my family had many Easter traditions. One of them involved my parents waking me up with a video camcorder (remember those!?) focused on me and my sister. “He is risen!” they’d exclaim. And we’d reply with, “He is risen indeed!”
As teenagers, we did not appreciate being woken up with a camera in our faces and expected to speak coherent words, so our enthusiasm for this tradition faded.
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Following these words of greeting, my sister and I would search all over our house for our hidden Easter baskets, filled with caramel-filled chocolate eggs, Peeps, and jelly beans. We got to eat just one or two pieces before heading off to church in our new Easter dresses. These traditions aren’t why I love Easter. But they remind me of a couple important truths that ARE the reason.
Ms. Rachel Feather & Her Sister, 2000
As we grow, we are expected to be cool, calm, and collected. And if we’re also tired, we may respond to good news begrudgingly, as I did while a teen. But this Easter, let’s be like children again! Let’s remember how exciting it is that Jesus died and rose again! Let’s jump up and run to tell someone, just as the first people who heard the news did.
The book of Acts records Paul’s words, “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:27), which echoes Jesus’ own words about seeking and finding Him (Matthew 7:8). Do you wake up each day, excited to search for what God has for you? Do you seek for Him? He is not far. He’s just waiting for you to search, so that He can reveal Himself to you.
As parents, you are the primary spiritual care-giver for your children. As Easter comes close, get excited with your kids! Search with them! Remember how our freedom from sin through Christ’s death and resurrection is such good, Good News.
Blessings,
Ms. Rachel Feather, Chaplain at SPH Pluit Village
