Those Easter Sunday Mornings…

As your eyes flutter back to life, you become unexplainably excited to find those precious little gifts hidden around the house. Never have you ever been so excited to get out of bed on a Sunday morning. You run to wake up your little brother and parents, only to find them sitting on the couch waiting for you to wake. The anticipation is killing you, and so you and your brother rummage through the house to find those pockets of joy, filled with your little presents. One on the bookshelf, one under a pillow, and another under the sink with all the cleaning products.

It’s Easter Sunday! The only morning where it is acceptable to have chocolate for brekkie. Your brother and yourself collect all the presents you have received and compare them to see who has more, only to find, you have the exact same amount.

After you all have breakfast, and gotten changed into your new Easter clothes, you all pile into the car to head off to church like every other Sunday. Your Dad would speak about how wonderful it is to be so deeply loved by a Father God. You would play the piano – singing songs of freedom and redemption. “He is Alive, He is Alive” You would sing.

After Church, you would all pile back into the car and head off to Sussex Inlet to see the rest of the family. Hidden around your small, quaint pocket of land, are bags of chocolate and pj’s. Your Omi announces “it’s time for the egg and spoon race!” in her deep, German accent. She hands each of the cousins a boiled and dyed egg, and sits back in her stool with the biggest smile on her face.

This is how I remember my Easter Sunday.

I wonder what your Easter Sunday mornings look like… Or even what Easter means to you.

Coming from a Christian perspective, Easter means that I am set free. I am no longer held back by the world, and I can have an intimate relationship with a Father God who is so in love with me that he would die so that I can live.

However, for many people, this isn’t what Easter stands for. It means, my parents have spend almost $150 on chocolate for my siblings and I. It means that after we all have a late breakfast, we will all pile in the car and go and see the rest of the family. It means, I will have to throw out last years chocolate that I hid from my brother and then forgot to eat, only to hide this years and forget about them too.

I wonder if it could mean more to you… I’m not saying that you have to believe in Christ for a weekend or anything. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about actually creating a meaning for yourself, that is deeper than chocolate for breakfast.

Could Easter represent thankfulness? Thankfulness for your family? Thankfulness for what you have? Thankfulness for the little things?

If you are a non-christian, you don’t have to feel like all these holidays are about spending money and gaining 5kgs over one weekend. It can be profound, and meaningful – without being a Christian.

Maybe, life doesn’t have to an accident. Maybe, life can be full of meaning and hope.

Maybe, we can start to appreciate small little things. Small things like;

• The first coffee of the morning,
• The fresh dew of a winter dawn,
• The late night, deep conversations,
• The way your bed hugs and moulds to you after a long day,
• The way a wave refreshes your soul.

We don’t have to be accidents. We can be bursting with hope and joy! And it’s up to you to create that meaning fo yourself.

I encourage you all to live your life with grateful hearts for what you have, and be hopeful for what might be coming. Life is short, and full of small, significant moments if you take the time to appreciate them.

Think about this when you are spending time with your family, or stacking shelves at your work this Easter.

You are loved and powerful! And very much not an accident!

Happy Easter!

Until next time,

Lil x