Prepared for Easter

Hi, this is Cynthia Dowling, and have you ever thought about preparing for Easter? Sure, you might say, it's nice to decorate and get things ready for spring and the Easter season, BUT have you ever thought about preparing yourself for the Easter season? This novel idea came to me earlier in my life when my children and I were enrolled in a program to study the Bible, and as part of my notes for the course I received a paper entitled “How to Prepare Your Child for Easter.” How wonderful I thought! I had never even thought of preparing before. So together we sang Easter songs and read simple passages relating to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Since then, I have carried that practice into my own life, and I thought you might like the challenge of doing the same thing yourself.

Let’s start with music! Have you ever created an Easter playlist? The music of Easter season is so engaging! It's both contemplative of the death and burial of Christ and completely joyful in His resurrection. For myself, I like to include the second part of the “Messiah” as a separate listening playlist. You can't really get any other piece of music that is so totally scriptural in nature and so totally beautiful in composition than the “Messiah.” The “Hallelujah Chorus” will lift you to the heavens, but then when the finale “Worthy Is the Lamb” begins, the first note until the last, will carry you into Paul’s third heaven, right to the throne of God, singing along with all the Saints from the beginning of time! You might be guessing that the “Messiah” is a magnificent favorite of mine, and you would be right! And there are so many other psalms and hymns and spiritual songs written for this season that your soul can feast on beautiful music. I love to start using my playlist a month before Easter, and that can be tricky because Easter falls on a different date every single year, so you need to be on your calendar toes picking a date to start your playlist. And you can be creative when you find time listen, like while you’re in the shower, while you're in the car, while you're cooking, or anytime you want with your earbuds in or out-- opportunities galore.

Also, starting a month or so before Easter, it’s great to choose a short Bible passage to read and/or memorize to prepare yourself for Easter. Memorizing gives you more flexibility to meditate, but if you don’t have time, loading it on your phone for review also works well. This year I'm memorizing the first two psalms out of the Egyptian Hallel psalms, Psalms 113-118. Psalms 113 and 114 are my choice, because the Egyptian Hallel psalms are closely connected with Passover. The Jewish people traveling on their journey to Jerusalem always sang these psalms in preparation to celebrate Passover. Interestingly, Jesus Himself, while He lived on this earth, must have sung these Psalms on His way to the Temple from childhood to the cross. So as I memorize, I'm thinking about the role Passover plays in the Easter account, what Passover meant to the pilgrims as they sang, and then, what those psalms and Easter should mean to me. Just listen to Psalm 113:

“Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth! He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; That he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people. He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.”

Psalm 114 includes the exodus from Egypt; listen to this psalm:

“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.”

Wouldn’t those have been fun to sing as a child on a journey to a festival? Let me encourage you also to help your children memorize a key phrase or a verse that really encapsulates the Easter message, so that their little hearts catch the sorrow and the joy of the Easter season. Since I just read John 11 this morning in my quiet time, right now I'm thinking about John 11:25-26: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” What thoughts of eternity that verse could put into your child's heart to ponder! The final question, “Believest thou this,” may even initiate an opening for you to share the gospel with your child!

Third, pick a gospel, and try to read through the Easter account to absorb the full significance of what Jesus did on the cross. You may want to choose a hymn to sing aloud and meditate on that goes along with your passage and/or your Easter memory work. Humming and singing it through the day will more easily let Easter truth sink in and even become clearer. Don’t forget the Epistles; they have some great Easter content, like first Corinthians 15, part of which is sung in the second section of the “Messiah”! So you see, there can be a double benefit in listening to the “Messiah,” both in singing and reading powerful portions of God’s truth, as a great preparation for your soul as you get ready to celebrate Easter.

So, don't just prepare your house, plan a good meal, and maybe buy a new outfit, but prepare your mind and your soul and your spirit for the Easter season. If you have limited time this year, think about choosing just one of these options, the easiest one for you to accomplish. And maybe, in the years to come, you can choose a different one or add an additional one, whatever your schedule allows. Then, let's see what exciting things God will do in us, through us, and for us, because we have cultivated our hearts for Him to do a good work of His Spirit this Easter season!