My Easter Evolution

Happy Easter y’all!

Whether you celebrate Easter in the form of easter eggs, peeps candy, bunnies, cute chicks, or another, I wanted to share my admiration for Easter & the reasons why it is more than a stereotypical holiday to me.

I intend to share important aspects of my life transparently, without spirituality, faith, or religion becoming a barrier to our conversation.

I know not everyone identifies as religious or is an active member of a church, and I want to preface by saying I do not want to project my beliefs onto y’all. Rather, I intend to share the important aspects of my life and to be open about how my religious beliefs are the core of who I am. If I do not share those and rather shield them from my blog, I feel that would not be an accurate or honest depiction of my life.

Despite being born & raised in a Christain household, I want to share how my relationship with Easter has evolved.

Before we dive in, let’s define what the word “Easter” even means. To Christian believers, this day signifies the resurrection of their savior, Jesus Christ from the dead. After suffering & being crucified on the cross 3 days before on Good Friday, Jesus was not defeated by death; instead, he rose again.

Now that we have a common understanding, let's get to the throwbacks:

My first vivid memory of Easter was sometime when I was in elementary school. My mom had picked me up from school & took me to Walgreens to pick up some things.

As we were walking aisle-to-aisle, I remember around Easter time being intrigued by the seasonal merchandise; the bunnies, eggs, candy, baskets, & pastels were everywhere. [Of course I asked my mom for a stuffed animal].

However, it wasn’t until I got into middle school that I learned more about why Easter was more than an ordinary church service my family & I would normally go to; it was more than an occasion to pull out ones' best attire too. I began learning more in depth about Easter when I started getting involved in bible studies & Christian education classes.

I learned about the season of Lent through the lens of my Catholic religion at the time - as well as family discussions about our faith. Moreover, I remember my peers talking about their decisions for Lent: to give something up [candy, social media, coffee, etc.] or to implement something new in their routine [pray, devotionals, fast, exercise, etc.]

The wide range of dedications I was exposed to made me of course reflect on my own.

• One year I gave up Starbucks.

• Another year I memorized a bible verse a day.

• The next year I gave up certain social media apps.

& the list goes on. However, I still hadn’t grasped the full understanding of the season of Lent, the rationale behind it, nor the anticipation of what it led to at the time.

During my sophomore year in high school, I recall watching The Passion of Christ for the first time on Good Friday. Shown in this film were many aspects of the week leading up to Jesus’ resurrection: his arrest, his beating, the betrayal of friends, the devestation of his mother, & finally, his nailing on the cross. The raw, realistic imagery I remember brought me to tears–sob in fact. While I had read & heard about the resurrection of Christ, I had never had a mental picture of what that entailed; this movie produced that for me, settling my curiosity once & for all.

After this significant moment, I thought my Easters going forward would never be the same, & I was right.

Here’s a sneak peek into how this transpired for me:

Junior year I dug deeper into my faith; senior year I completely relied on it; freshman year of college I clung to it; & sophomore year of college I fell in love with it.

In high school, I faced battles with my faith as I felt I could not live my life with faith FULLY in the center: from relationships, to friendships, to sports, and grade focusing, I never understood how not any of it mattered without my faith.

It wasn’t until I started facing adversities in my life that I realized that Jesus was the true constant for me.

I carried this with me to college, knowing I wanted my life to not only reflect being filled in the spirit but actually abide in it fully.

As a result, the way that Easter has evolved & personally impacted my faith & understanding of my savior means so many different things to me; I now realize there is beauty in this process that symbolizes something deeper.

While Jesus’ passion [crucifiction] was anything but beautiful exteriorly, the redemption & hope that was contingent on his resurrection from the grave is the foundational beauty of the Easter story.

With this being said, what I am thinking about leading up to this Easter is how this hope is not just for believers only.

Through the growth & maturity of my faith overtime, I reflect on the way my

beliefs have changed; my perspective has eternalized; my curiosity has grown; & so much more.

But one thing that has remained is that my savior is consistent.

I say all of this to encourage you, even if you are not a believer or belong to a specific (or any) religion, that no journey looks alike.

I have met Christians that have different stories from mine; from impactful, to moving, to shocking, to wild, each of their stories & testimonies is unique & special to them. Even so, the core theme that ties these stories together is that Jesus changed everything for them.

People go from being unfaithful, to entertaining divorce, to then becoming a better spouse. People go from being choked by mental illness, to almost giving up entirely, to walking in freedom. People go from abusing alcohol, to using drugs, to then complete sobriety & so forth.

Likewise, people can go from hunting easter eggs, to mourning on Good Friday, to then celebrating on Easter Sunday.

How can this transformation happen, you ask? Jesus & Jesus alone.

I hope this article encourages you to think about your own transformational seasons in your life. While I can not force you to reflect on your spirituality, I can say that, for me, Christianity is an experience: an experience that does not always depict a straight path; there are hills & valleys, wrong turns & misdirection, & suffering & sadness. I won't lie to you.

However, despite this, you have your own story. Whether that is a personal, faith-related, or challenging one, I want to tell you that I am here to listen to & value your story.

I am proud of my personal Easter Evolution, & I am extremely blessed & thankful for my family & mentors growing up for placing faithful seeds in my life that I could later grow upon. Without them, being working vehicles for Jesus on Earth, I would not have the same story I have today. I love you guys.

I hope sharing my story can help you embrace or develop your own. If I leave you with anything, it's that there is hope in Him. That is the beauty about Easter after all: the hope of Jesus’ resurrection & second coming.

All Glory to Him.

Happy Easter everyone!

-Grace