easter.

"How deep the Father's love for us,

how vast beyond all measure!

That He should give His only Son,

to make a wretch His treasure."

Easter. The two syllables paint pictures of pastel color, delicious food, and perfect weather, and when those things are put all together, it equals one of my favorite holidays.

It's of laughter and celebration, time with loved ones and tables laden with sweet treats. It's newborn rabbits, fawns, and newly hatched chicks. It's spring cleaning, working in a frenzy to arrange and rearrange until it's just right.

{linking up}

It's dye-stained fingers and the promise of jewel-toned candy. It's scrubbing skin until it glows pink and donning new dresses picked out especially for the day.

But these things that Easter brings to mind are so incredibly materialistic. Easter has been coated with so much commercialism that chipping away the layers has become difficult. The true meaning has been obscured to the point of near discouragement.

Because Easter isn't about worldly frippery.

Instead, it's the utter selflessness of Christ and His extreme love for us, His creatures.
It's Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate, innocent, with the knowledge He was going to be condemned to the cruelest death possible.
It's the lashings, the ridicule, the prickly crown of thorns pressed onto His head.
It's His bruised, battered, bloody body hanging on a cross, a cross that should have been for us.
It's His rising again from the dead on the third day after a triumphant defeat of Satan.
It's the story of our redemption from eternal damnation and the One who took our place.

(palm sunday service at our church)

That's the Easter that's been covered up, the Easter stripped free of earthly pleasures.

Happy Easter, y'all.

-carlotta