New Beginnings

Easter is four days away and I was having a discussion with my kids this past weekend about the spiritual meaning of the holiday. I was explaining how Jesus died and then was resurrected (reborn in the kids version) on Easter. My four year old then said, "Who is that guy who got dead again? Yeah, Jesus. Is he the Easter Bunny?" That's a great question and of course I had to laugh. They were trying to connect the dots from Jesus to the Easter Bunny. I had no idea myself as to where the Easter Bunny, baskets and eggs came from, so I did a little google research. According to About.com, "The Easter Bunny is a rabbit-spirit. Long ago, he was called the Easter Hare, hares and rabbits have frequent multiple births so they became a symbol of fertility. The custom of an Easter egg hunt began because children believed that hares laid eggs in the grass. The Romans believed that All life comes from an egg. Christians consider eggs to be the seed of life and so they are symbolic of the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Now I can explain more accurately what Easter eggs symbolize. My ten year asked my 6 (almost 7) year old if she believes in the Easter Bunny. I was sure the answer was yes, but she said "no." I hesitantly questioned, "Then who is the Easter Bunny?" I was waiting for the jig to be up, but she said, "It's someone dressed in an Easter Bunny suit of course." Ahhh, she is old enough to know that it would be a pretty silly concept to assume there is a real bunny hopping around delivering Easter baskets, but someone dressed in a bunny suit, delivering baskets all over the world is perfectly plausible. She says that the Easter Bunny operates much like Santa Clause, except without the reindeer and elf to help out. That poor Easter Bunny is all alone in his (or her) quest. Here are some inspiring quotes about Easter. "Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life"...(S.D. Gordon). "Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless"...(Charles M. Crowe). "Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer; Death is strong, but Life is stronger; Stronger than the dark, the light; Stronger than the wrong, the right"...(Phillips Brooks, "An Easter Carol"). So keeping the spiritual and symbolic meaning of Easter in mind, this time of year is about the possibility of new beginnings and transformation. It is a time of letting go, reflection and the opportunity to begin anew. My kids want to know if all the holidays have something to do with Jesus, even Halloween. I explained how Jesus seemed to have a huge influence on many traditions but that there are various interpretations and symbolic meanings to everything we celebrate, as well as many variations of some holidays. They stopped asking questions and just can't wait to get their Easter baskets on Sunday. They really don't care much about what Easter means at this point. They love the festivities of hunting all over our property for Easter eggs, running downstairs to get their Easter baskets first thing on Sunday morning and having a family dinner at the end of the day. Easter is about magic for them because it takes quite a magical rabbit to deliver those baskets to every boy and girl. May the gift and magic of this Easter be the ability to see things in a new light, start a new chapter in your life and the reminder that new beginnings are always possible.