During Easter, we see a lot of bunnies, neon-colored plastic eggs, and flowery wishlist-worthy dresses. But it’s easy to skip through the weekend without celebrating something we all desperately need, something that is the best thing about Easter: hope.
Specifically, Easter brings us hope in a time of loss. If you’ve ever had a loved one pass away, you know the mountain of feelings such loss can bring. It’s different for everyone, but losing someone precious to you hurts, and it can feel like part of your heart, or even a part of you, is missing. In trying to heal, some people try to close up that hole, to make it go away or even disappear. But doing that can also feel like we’re causing that relationship, that connection to someone we love, to disappear too. So we stop trying to make the hole disappear, but then we still may not know what to do to stop the hurt.
This is where hope comes in. Hope can help the hurt.
Hope is “to desire with the expectation of obtainment,” or “to expect with confidence.” On Easter, Christians celebrate the new hope in eternal life – in the chance to someday be reunited with those we love – to fill that hole in our hearts that has created by death. Theology 101: When Jesus died and rose, He broke through death and made it possible for all of us to do the same. He gave humanity the chance to reunite after death, to live on together in Heaven.
So, do you feel that hole in your heart when you lose someone? It’s painful and it’s real, because that person and your relationship with them was and is very real, and always will be. But, with hope, we can “expect with confidence” that that hole will not be there forever. We can be confident that one day we will once again be really, tangibly, together with the people we love. The reality of Easter gives us that hope.
And that hope gives us freedom to go on with life, even with that hole – that painful but beautiful reminder of the person we love – because we no longer have to try to cover up or fill it. We can rest knowing and having “the expectation” of its being filled again someday when we’re back together.
Hope is a powerful thing. It brings peace and joy into our lives. Without it, we can become trapped in our endless efforts to fix something that can’t really be fixed, at least not the way we’re trying to; we have to hope for something better. Hope can also be defined as movement towards a future good. So if you want to seek the good life, seek hopefully. Which means we must believe in that future good. And expect with confidence. Embrace the freedom waiting for you.
So paint your Easter eggs, eat lots of jelly beans, and buy an adorable new dress, but don’t stop there. Remember that Easter is about love and hope, and that our relationships with people we care about are eternal, which makes them all the more meaningful.
Love never ends.