Happy Easter!

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Next to Christmas, it's my favorite. I love everything about Easter. Some of my best childhood memories are of Easter. I remember my mom taking us shopping for new Easter dresses for Sunday, coloring Easter eggs and looking for them Sunday morning, baskets filled with candy and a few new treasures, and going to church in our new Sunday best. My favorite memories are of the annual Noggle Easter egg hunt with all my cousins. I love to go back and watch silent movies of us running around looking for those plastic eggs filled with candy. The best part was when this giant Easter Bunny would make his grand entrance! For years all of us kids would sit around trying to figure out who was the bunny. Begging our aunts and moms to tell us!!! They of course never would. To this day I laugh when I watch those old movies because it is now so obvious who was under disguise as our Easter bunny! Tomorrow we have our annual Easter egg hunt with the family. There have been so many changes as the years have gone by within this family. It's actually kinda sad that there will be so many "missing" faces and smiles. But there are so many more faces and smiles to enjoy now. My kids love playing with their kid cousins and they love hunting for those plastic eggs filled with goodies. And I'm sure they will enjoy seeing that giant Easter Bunny reappear this year and will ask us someday, who was the Easter Bunny?! And I know all those "missing" faces will be smiling down on us from a far much better place. The reason for Easter to begin with. Heaven. Eternal life with our Heavenly Father. And that is the main reason I love Easter. It's not the new outfit, coloring eggs, the basket, going to church, or the egg hunts. It's about the Greatest Story ever told. It's about the reminder of what Jesus did for me, for you on the cross so long ago. It's about how He died and on the third day arose and is Alive. It's about choosing to live your life each day remembering the great sacrifice He made for you and me. Showing that same great love to others. Even when we don't feel like it. Even when it's hard. Even when it's impossible. Mostly, it's about accepting and loving Jesus.
Happy Easter! May you find the most important Easter "treat" this year!