Why I Love Easter

I have to admit...I'm not a huge fan of pastel colors (or decorating with eggs and chicks for that matter), but I make an exception at Easter because I'm so excited to celebrate Christ's resurrection.

In Japan, I remember teaching a friend about the resurrection of Jesus Christ for the first time (meaning he had never heard about it before). This man looked at me like I was crazy. There are many teachings of Christ that we can know are true through experience. We try living them and can see a change in our lives and in ourselves. However, believing in the resurrection takes a takes a little extra faith (in my opinion) because we can't really experience it without dying. It took my friend a while until he also believed that Christ had resurrected and that every person to ever live on this Earth would also resurrect one day. He came to believe by reading the scriptures and praying to know whether or not it was true. He received an answer as we all can.

The fact that every single person in the world will overcome death through the power of Jesus Christ is not just something that affects us at some unknown time in the future. The knowledge of the resurrection affects my life everyday, especially now that I am a Mom. When Luke was born I suddenly realized how vulnerable I am to having my heart absolutely crushed. If anything ever happened to him, I really didn't know how I could go on. For the first time in my life I was actually afraid of death. I love my family so much that I was scared of losing them. That's when I began my habit of checking on Luke about 5 times whenever he is taking a nap (I still do that). But as I thought about my faith in Jesus Christ and His resurrection from death, I remembered that death is not something that I need to fear. Obviously I would be extremely sad if anything ever happened to my child or husband, etc. But I know that we will live again as a family and that death is not the end because of Jesus Christ. It is not just death, but all things...pain, sickness, hurt...will eventually be overcome through our faith and devotion to Jesus Christ. That is why I can be happy and optimistic even during difficult times.

I know that reading the scriptures can strengthen our knowledge that Jesus Christ really is the Son of God, that He came to this Earth, suffered and died for our sins, and was resurrected that we also will live again. I know that through His Atonement we can all be healed and overcome our weaknesses. Not only did prophets in the New Testament testify of this truth, but prophets living on the American continent also knew of Christ and saw Him after His resurrection. They testified in their record, The Book of Mormon.

I love my Savior... and so I'll decorate with pastels, color eggs, and be the Easter bunny, etc....but more importantly, I'll take some time to feel gratitude for all He has done for me.

Even if you aren't religious, I hope can feel the joy of Easter and contemplate the love our Savior has for each one of us. Here is a link to a short slideshow I found this week. It has beautifully painted images of the Savior and His life. Enjoy.