Sometimes, it takes a conversation with a six-year-old to give you a wakeup call.
Easter Sunday morning, Timmy was cuddling on my lap. “Timmy, today is Easter!” one of his siblings said.
Figuring I should do my duty and make sure he knew what Easter was all about, I asked, “Timmy, do you know what we celebrate on Easter?”
“Finding Easter eggs!” Timmy said immediately. “And Jesus coming out of the grave.”
Here are the thoughts that went through my head: Oops. Maybe I should have spent more time teaching him about Easter. Wait, no, he knows what Easter is about. He’s just excited about the Easter egg hunt we’ll be having this afternoon. Can’t blame him for that; he’s only six. When he’s an adult, he’ll place more priority on Jesus than on plastic eggs.
Or will he?
If Timmy’s like me, he’ll have to remind himself to focus more on Jesus than on the trappings of whatever season we’re talking about. I know Jesus is way more important than—well, than anything else, really, yet I still find myself putting far more time and energy into buying and stuffing Easter eggs than I do in preparing myself spiritually. I spend more time making sure my kids have suitable Easter outfits to wear to church than I do reading Scripture and praying in preparation for Easter morning, and I suspect I’m not the only one. Maybe you do, too.
True, we’ve heard the Easter story many, many times. Maybe our familiarity with it is the reason we don’t bother spending any time on it. We know that stuff already. Besides, the pastor’s going to preach on it from the pulpit. We don’t need to bother with it on our own.
Or do we?
Oh, yes, we do. If we realized the depth of our need for constant filling by the Holy Spirit and how far we are from being as spiritually mature as we’d like to think, we’d never arrive on Easter Sunday morning with 200 Easter eggs and the realization that we hadn’t spent time with God in who knows how long. We wouldn’t sit down to a delicious dinner that we’d spent more time on than on our spiritual condition.
There’s nothing wrong with Easter eggs or nice dinners. My family and I enjoy both of those things. But before we criticize our children for being more excited about Easter eggs than about Jesus, maybe we should examine our own hearts and see if we don’t do the very same thing.
Our actions will show what we truly believe is most important.
Luke 24:6—“He is not here, for He has been raised.” (MGT)