Easter? How absurd!

At an early age my mother prepared my heart for some deep spiritual truths.

One of my earliest memories of Easter was my mother putting on her Easter Bunny outfit (yes she had one), driving through the streets of Saint Matthews on the Saturday before the big day and stopping to talk to the children playing in the streets. She would remind them to color their eggs if they hadn't yet and remind them to look tomorrow morning for the eggs she was going to hide in their yards.

When you grow up with a mother who dresses like a rabbit on a regular basis you begin to associate the celebration of Easter with a lightness of spirit and a nod to the unconventional. Easter is a wild ride.

By the time Joe and I drove to church this morning Easter was already having it's way with me. You could not have slapped the smile off of my face. It was Easter! Our pastor told us he discovered as he was updating the sign in front of the church this morning that our box of letters didn't have an exclamation point. So the sign out front of our church just read... he is risen. The one Sunday to throw caution to the wind and really go for it and we were the only church on San Jose Boulevard without an exclamation point. Bet we have one by this time next year.

A friend who is a Sunday School teacher once told me of her most sincere effort to separate the fictional story of the Easter Bunny from the true story of Jesus dying on the cross to connect us to God in an eternal, loving relationship. She pulled out all of the stops. Her theology was flawless and her word pictures suitable for Christian radio.

"Having done all..." she inwardly congratulated herself and asked the children to color a picture depicting the true meaning of Easter.

One ruffled and pin curled little girl proudly held up her masterpiece.

It was the Easter Bunny nailed to the cross.

It is because of Easter that we can laugh hard at all of the absurdities in life. We don't have to be perfect. We have a free hall pass. We have the ultimate long term plan. We didn't do a thing to make it happen. It was handled and handed over by the most dynamic, powerful, Being in the cosmos. If I hadn't experienced it myself -- I would conclude, "How absurd!"

Thanks mom.