Remember

It is the day after Easter. My kids’ blood is so full of sugar that even their sweat smells like candy (we weren't even done with Valentine’s candy yet, and the buckets have been refilled!). It seems like in America it isn't a holiday unless there is candy involved. At any rate, what now? Now that another Easter Sunday has come and gone, what do we do? Is it over? Are we done? Is that it? Was it all only about the colored eggs and the decadence of cacao? Is the tooth ache all that remains?

Well of course the answer to all that is a resounding NO! As I read the passage about the Angels who spoke to the women at the empty tomb a key word jumps out at me:

Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Luke 24: 6-9 

The word is “remember.” That is the key to Easter. That is the reason we celebrate it. We celebrate Easter to remember that Christ changed everything! We celebrate Easter to remember that we are new and that the old ways must be left behind. We celebrate Easter because in the course of the year we allow ourselves to get lost in the business of life and forget about living. We forget about the source of life. We forget about the One whose breath is the air we breathe. We forget when we ought to remember.

The angels are not just telling the women to remember. They are telling us too. Even in the midst of our sorrow, when we think it is all futile and that there is not light left at the end of the tunnel of our sad existence, the message from God is, to remember. “Remember how He told you” that He loves you the day you were delivered from what could’ve been a horrible situation. “Remember how He told you” that He is always with you even while immersed in your loneliest hour. “Remember how He told you” that you are His when you felt abandoned and rejected. “Remember how He told you” that you are His heir and heiress the day you felt destitute. Remember. Remember that He lives in us and that we carry Easter in our hearts every day.

Like the women, we are to “remember His words” and return “from the tomb” to tell “the rest.” Remember not to look for the living among the dead and don’t keep it a secret. Do tell! Tell the good news of the Risen Lord to all who ask you for the reason of the hope you have. Tell the rest about the precious gift that is given to us in Jesus the Christ. Tell them about grace and tell them again. Pick up your Bible and remember it every day. It is thanks to the message of Easter that everything changed. We must remember and tell.

Though seemingly impossible, the candy will eventually be all gone.-Not so the message of the Cross and especially the message of the empty tomb-. Let us all remember it for the rest of the year and celebrate the gift of eternal life that we received on that first Easter morning a long time ago. There is certainly nothing sweeter than the gift Christ gave us on Easter. Let our souls get so filled up with that message that even our sweat smells like Grace.

I'm linking with A Holy Experience