I love a good party!  I enjoy celebrating birthdays, weddings and attending bridal and baby showers.  I love all kinds of celebrations at home and at church, but none are more special than celebrating my relationship with Jesus Christ!

My living room and dining room are decorated with bunnies and colourful eggs this week.  I have a few baskets filled with Easter treats for each of my grandbabies.  They will participate in several Easter egg hunts this weekend, hosted by community and church groups.  To offset all the commercialism of the season, I have the Resurrection Eggs ready when we gather for Easter dinner as a family. The eggs are a unique but effective way of telling the story to my grandchildren of Jesus and His great sacrifice for us all. On Good Friday, we will participate in The Walk of the Cross and we will join the faithful to walk the stations of the Cross on the main street of our small town.  It is something we have done for many years and it is always an impactful experience.  Then on Sunday morning we will gather with our church family to celebrate the resurrection of Christ by worshipping together and proclaiming, “He Is Risen!”

On Tuesday, after the time of gathering and celebrating Easter with family and friends, I will put away the decorations again, just like I do with Christmas decorations each year, and things will once again return to normal…

What?  Back to normal?

If we go back to “normal” after celebrating Christmas and Easter we’ve missed the point entirely about both celebrations.

Those who truly experience the life-changing significance of celebrating Christmas and Easter, should never return to a normal, routine existence again.  Oh, the decorations can be put away, but the celebrations should continue every single day!  You see, as much as the world wants us to secularize both events, it’s not about Easter Bunnies, or Santa Claus or tinsel on trees and baskets filled with chocolate eggs.  Christmas is about celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and Easter is about His dying on the Cross, taking the sin of this world upon His shoulders so that we may be redeemed!  It’s about Jesus overcoming death by rising three days after His crucifixion thereby giving all believers hope for eternal life if we put our faith and trust in Him.  The greatest Birth, the greatest Man in history, the greatest Story ever told cannot be condensed into a few days of celebrating in December and a weekend in early Spring.  If we just celebrate Him on those days, we have missed the mark.

I don’t want my life to return to a normal routine after Christmas and Easter.  I want to remember how incredibly blessed and thankful I am to be a follower of Christ each and every day!  I want the party to go on and on!  I want to rejoice daily in the knowledge that I have been Saved!  I want to share with the world that I have the Hope of eternal life!  That is cause for great celebration, and if my old body could do cartwheels to express my enthusiasm about everything Jesus has done for me, I would do that too!

There is so much negativity in the world today.  Too many worries and hardships that seem to take away our joy.  Christians are not immune to the negativity around us.  It weighs us all down.  However, nothing should suppress the JOY of our Salvation!  It cannot be contained!  It should never be squelched!

If you are a follower of Christ, rejoice daily!  Tell others how Jesus has changed your life!  Celebrate Jesus today, tomorrow and every day!  Let’s keep the party going!