True meaning behind Easter

Easter is just around the corner and the Easter Bunny is busy filling baskets full of eggs and candy preparing his annual visit to all of the young children. Moms and dads, grandpas and grandmas are busy shopping for groceries and getting ready for the big family Easter meal.

I have so many great memories of Easters past. Our son Marc was 5 years old and we decided it was time for him to participate in the annual Clear Lake Park Easter Egg hunt. It was a cold day and he was dressed for winter. We arrived at the park with family and Grandpa John and Grandma Jean. John lined up with Marc and his basket surrounded by hundreds of egg hunters of all ages. The whistle blew, loosing a stampede of kids running to the eggs. When the dust cleared, Marc and Grandpa were standing with three plastic eggs in the basket. The newspaper took a picture of Marc standing with a forlorn look on his face, in his cute little winter outfit.

Easter with our children, Marc and Katie, was pretty low key. Church, Katie dressed in her Easter outfit, baskets for each full of goodies, and a big ham dinner with grandparents was the norm.

After Lisa and myself retired with grandchildren, all boys, we really stepped up the game. Our Easter egg hunt became a real production. Our first year we set out over 100 plastic eggs everywhere in the yard and in trees. The eggs were all filled with goodies and the grannies were sent on a scavenger hunt, reading clues to find the big prize egg. On the first hunt, we discovered the two older boys filled their baskets with many more eggs than the younger two. Problem solved: the next year, we put names on the eggs and even color coded them.

Our four grandbabies are now grown up boys and don’t have much interest in an egg hunt. We now fill plastic buckets with goodies and plastic eggs containing $2, $5, or $10 bills. The egg bake has become the traditional Easter Lunch. One thing that never changes in our traditional Easter celebration is its true meaning: Easter is the true celebration of the resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ.