Spring Cleaning

ALERT: My family and I are NOT celebrating Easter this year!  Yeah, you read that right.  No chocolate Easter bunnies or visits, no dying eggs, or Easter gift baskets!  But before you put me on your church prayer list and start throwing holy water on me, hear me out!  We are exchanging it for a festival!  Instead of celebrating our cultural norms, that have so many secular, ungodly demands, we are focusing on a more biblical representation of the season that reflects who we are and who we want to be.  In that spirit, we ARE celebrating Passover!
                                           
God has been stirring me for sometime regarding holidays and how our family celebrates them.  Then, Jen Hatmaker's book, 7, came into my life and I could NOT ignore the engraved invitation from the Lord to learn more.  She states it like this:
            "Easter is a little name picked up from the Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess of spring, Eostre, who saved a frozen bird from the harsh winter by turning it into a magical rabbit who could lay eggs. Hence: 'Easter' bunnies and eggs." 

This information confirmed that I am slave to pagan rituals and led by culture.  Many of my holiday practices represents nothing of what I say I believe.  As a side note, if you intend to continue dying Easter eggs with you babies and leaving carrots out for the Easter Bunny, more power to you and you will not receive any judgement from me.  You don't have to delete me on Facebook! We will just be doing things differently.

Friends, you may be thinking, we've lost it.  I  mean, first, she's ditching the Christmas Tree and reindeer food and (gasp!) Santa.  Now, the poor Jeanise children are not even going to have a chocolate bunny to eat that morning!  It's OK, really! We will all survive with a little less sweets and egg dying around and bonus: our waistlines will thank us!
                                                                
Here are a few reasons why we are celebrating Passover:
1. It is biblical. Passover is not just a Jewish holiday, but "a special festival to the Lord." (Exodus 12:14)  Messianic Rabbi, Eric Carlson, puts it like this: "This Feast is directly related to and fulfilled by the Jewish Messiah, Messiah Yeshua! (Jesus Christ). John the Baptist refers to Yeshua as 'The Lamb', 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.' (John 1:29)."  The people in Jesus' day understood this profound meaning in that description.  Isaiah 53:7-10 provided them(and us, in retrospect) the foretelling of the "human lamb" that would suffer for us. 
2. It acknowledges the redemptive blood atoned for our sins through sacrifice. God says only blood can atone for sin. (Leviticus 17:11)  We believe it is through the Lord, Jesus Christ that we can be reconciled to God.  Jesus identified himself as the Passover Lamb. (Matthew 26:17-28) (John 12:9-19)
3.  It is part of who we are. (Romans 11:17) 
Who knew?  We, Christians, mere Gentiles, are grafted in.  This is our identity.  Jesus goes a step further in his suffering and dying for us. The outcome is not only for the forgiveness of our sins, but also, to bring us into inheritance with him.  Ephesians 1:11: "Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan."

In conclusion, we are going to begin Passover with a traditional Seder(Jesus being the focused Passover Lamb).  If you're interested you can find instructions here: http://www.zionsake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66.  We are so excited and pray that the Lord would draw us closer to him during this precious time as we reflect on the lavish love of our Heavenly Father and the sacrifice of his Holy Son!  It is already working! ;)  Lastly, no matter how your family takes time to remember the love of Christ this spring, I hope it is a time filled with renewing and refreshing.