A toy catalogue for Easter, Target? Seriously? \u00a0<\/p>\n
I realize that Easter has gone just as mainstream as Christmas. That\u2019s fine.\u00a0 Christians can\u2019t mark a day as special and then say that nobody else is allowed to be special that day.\u00a0 Life is short. \u00a0Celebrate whenever possible! Make special days meaningful, even if your interpretation differs from the traditional meaning.\u00a0 But a home\/table\/child that looks like the Easter Bunny threw up in here? No thanks. [i\u2019m looking at you pottery barn.]<\/p>\n
In the Church, we celebrate Easter as the day that Jesus\u2019 friends went to make funeral arrangements and found his tomb empty. \u00a0That absence was more powerful than any kind of presence could have been. That absence said, for the world, that our God is bigger than death. What great news!<\/p>\n
Even if you don\u2019t celebrate Easter in the religious sense, it can still be a spiritual day, something worth marking in your home. There is new life all around us, especially in springtime\u2014especially in the desert! How much do you love living here (or wherever you are) \u00a0right about now?! What a great time to share a special meal with your family, enjoy the outdoors, and share your gratitude for all the signs of life that you see around you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whether you mark Easter in the traditional Christian understanding, or approach it in a more secular way, I think we all agree that the last thing any of us needs is MORE STUFF.\u00a0 Stores have to make a living. So do the folks at Disney, Fisher Price, and Gymboree. \u00a0But in this season of new life and hope, I invite you to live in awareness of what they are trying to sell you. Joy. Celebration. Fullness of life. You won\u2019t find that in a catalogue, and you can\u2019t fit it into a frilly basket.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I am not the meanest mother in the world. I buy candy. I buy small gifts. What I try not to do is buy a feeling, or a lifestyle, or a certain image of myself as a parent. \u00a0In this season of new life\u2014whether it is about Jesus for you, or the growth that you see in your garden \u2013embrace the empty space, the waiting place.\u00a0Walk away from\u00a0all the fake\u00a0Easter grass, and there is something holy to be found in the\u00a0space that remains. \u00a0After all, the absence of something can be powerful. \u00a0Some would say it can even change your life\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A toy catalogue for Easter, Target? Seriously? \u00a0 I realize that Easter has gone just as mainstream as Christmas. That\u2019s fine.\u00a0 Christians can\u2019t mark a day as special and then say that nobody else is allowed to be special that day.\u00a0 Life is short. \u00a0Celebrate whenever possible! Make special days meaningful, even if your interpretation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,118,56,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith-and-community","category-lent-and-easter","category-spirituality-in-culture","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n