keeping up with Easter

After all of the usual fun and discovery of easter eggs and easter baskets on Sunday morning, my sister and brother-in-law sat down with their boys to talk with them about the reason we celebrate Easter in the first place. After a lesson on biblical history, the family loaded up and headed to church to worship and celebrate our risen Lord.

I can just imagine the boys chattering all the way to church about their new Easter baskets and the candy and treats the Easter Bunny kindly left for them while they were sleeping… but that wasn’t the topic of conversation in children’s church yesterday. The candy and treats were left at the door as five year-old Clayton marched in and announced to his classmates: “All of you kids who don’t know about the REAL Easter, come and sit down. I’m gonna tell you!” Walking them through the story point by preciously memorized point, he finished by telling all of his eager listeners “...so you kids need to keep up with Easter, because you don’t want to go with the Devil—when you die you want to go to heaven with Jesus.”

He may very well have acknowledged the true meaning of Easter more than many of us, and he still has candy and presents to be excited about. I think it’s beautiful, and it sure does make me want to “keep up with [the real] Easter.”