(or, Catching up on my missed letter)
Philippians 3:10-12
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
I'm not sure how I feel about this next quote from the inestimable C.S. Lewis; I was raised to believe that the 'merely festal character' of Easter was at least sacrilegious and at worst nearly blasphemous - no Easter bunny darkened our door and it was years before I could regard a jelly bean without feelings of misgiving. Now that I have children of my own, with a husband who had all the trappings of the holiday from sunrise service to Easter basket, I'm torn.
C.S. Lewis
There is a stage in a child’s life at which it cannot separate the religious from the merely festal character of Christmas or Easter. I have been told of a very small and very devout boy who was heard murmuring to himself on Easter morning a poem of his own composition which began ‘Chocolate eggs and Jesus risen.’
This seems to me, for his age, both admirable poetry and admirable piety. But of course the time will soon come when such a child can no longer effortlessly and spontaneously enjoy that unity. He will become able to distinguish the spiritual from the ritual and festal aspect of Easter; chocolate eggs will no longer seem sacramental.
And once he has distinguished he must put one or the other first. If he puts the spiritual first he can still taste something of Easter in the chocolate eggs; if he puts the eggs first they will soon be no more than any other sweetmeat. They will have taken on an independent, and therefore a soon withering, life.”
I hope to be able to guide my boys to always put the spiritual first, without having to make an anathema of Cadbury Creme Eggs.
Visiting from A/Z. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between the spiritual and the "ways of the world." We emphasized spiritual but included world traditions, i.e., we did Easter egg hunts, but after church, after we had learned and remembered the reason we were celebrating a particular holiday. Read the story of Jesus' birth and said a prayer to him thanking him for coming at Christmas before opening presents. I think it can be done, it just needs emphasis first on what really matters. Enjoy the rest of the challenge!
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