Sonny and I were married 34 years before he moved to Heaven. One thing I learned during this time of marriage was he did not like to shop! This applied also to important gifts like birthdays, anniversaries, Mother's Day, Christmas and the like. To not to be offended and take it personally I would buy my own gift from him and make a joke about it. On one occasion, we were needing window treatments for the home into which we moved, so I made them my anniversary gift. Thanking him for my gift, Sonny responded: "I glad you like your curtains!" "Oh, Honey, they are not curtains, they are window treatments." "Oh, OK", trying to remember, "they are not curtains, they are window treatments". Right then a friend of Sonny
's stopped by to see us. Buying up the opportunity, Sonny proudly beamed, "Look what I got my Babe! They are not curtains!"
Sometimes we remember what things are not and forget what they really are, like in Sonny
's case. As we have just celebrated Jesus
' death and resurrection, being our sacrificial Lamb, many do not realize the true event. On God
's calendar, It was Passover and the feast of First Fruits. (Lev 23:4) The first Passover took place when the people of Israel applied the blood of the lamb to their doorposts so that death would "Passover" their household. It was a picture of what the Messiah would do many years later and why God said to observe it.
(John 5:24 (KJV)) "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." (The Hebrew here is "passed over" or "crossed over".) Yeshua (Jesus) is our Passover Lamb!
What happened, and why do we now call it Easter?
One interesting insight I recently came across explains it this way from "The American Book of Days," by George William Douglas:
"As the festival of Eostre was a celebration of the renewal of life in the spring it was easy to make it a celebration of the resurrection from the dead of Jesus. There is no doubt that the Church (of Rome) in its early days adopted the old pagan customs and gave a "Christian" meaning to them.
It would have been suicide for the very early Christian converts to celebrate their holy days with observances that did not coincide with celebrations that already existed. To save lives, the missionaries cleverly decided to spread their religious message slowly throughout the populations by allowing them to continue to celebrate pagan feasts, but to do so in a Christian manner."
This time of celebration is not about bunnies, colored eggs and new outfits. It is a celebration of life, passing from death to Life, the Life Jesus made possible! In our celebrations, let
's remember what they are really...and they are not curtains!
A beautiful blending of the Hebraic and Christian feasts and traditions can be seen on
https://larryhuchministries.com/
. As we begin the "Counting of the Omer" (on the Hebraic calendar) up to the day of Pentecost, you may want to participate in the "50 days for a better you" with Larry Huch. We can have "curtains" as long as we understand they are really "window treatments"!
