Easter's Desacralization: The bunny has risen!!!
 

    I have an uncle who is a preacher whose young daughter had drawn an interesting picture for the Easter season.  Bursting forth from the tomb hewn from the rock was none other than the resurrected Easter Bunny ready to scatter eggs for the faithful to find!! I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw the work of my little cousin.  Her blending of religious and secular could have been pop art if she had done the piece in another medium other than crayons.  Still, her confusion shows something more than a young girl's befuddlement about the truth behind the religious holiday so vital to Christianity.

   As a child, Easter was like a crappy cherry on top of the Christmas sunday.  Santa hooked me up a few months prior with all kind of presents and now all I got from the rabbit was candy.  What a rip....  Even though I went to a Christian school all my life I couldn't have told you what Easter was about.  I knew Jesus was born on December the 25th,  but the rotating date of Easter's greater meaning escaped me. 

   The greed and festivities of the secular side of the holidays (ironically coming from the word holyday) had totally eclipsed the spiritual for me and I am sure for many others.  It has not totally surprised me to see the resentment of some who are not Christians when we try to put our religious spin on their previously fun and harmless "holiday". 

   This is not to totally dismiss the secularization of Christmas and Easter as a completely bad thing beyond redemption.  Although it certainly muddles the true meaning of Christ's work, it also serves as a segway to discussion.  In Japan where Christmas is commonly held to be the birthday of Santa Clause, the opportunity to bring up and discuss the birth of Immanuel (God with us) would not be as readily available without the acceptance of their thoroughly secular Christmas. 

   So as we chomp down on Cadberry eggs and disgustingly sweet confectionary this Easter, remember that the eggs hidden by that behemoth bunny aren't the only treasure waiting to be uncovered in clever hiding places.