easter

April has always been my favorite month. It is usually full of spring weather. It's the month of my birth. I get to hear inspirational words from people I deeply respect that compel me to be a better person. And occasionally, Easter lands in April.

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. To many, it means Cadbury eggs and exciting scavenger hunts for Easter baskets and eggs. Not to mention chocolate. Oh, the chocolate!

For me, Easter means so much more. Easter is my personal celebration of my Savior's life and ministry, His atonement and His resurrection. Jesus suffered for every mistake I have and will ever make. He felt every sadness, disappointment, sickness and pain I will ever feel. He bled for every repeated sin, for each awful thing I do. He endured more physical and emotional pain that I can even imagine. And when he had finished that for me, he did it all again for every individual who would ever walk the earth. After that, he wore a crown of thorns and hung from a cross, giving his life, for me.

painting by Greg Olsen

But that's not the part of Easter that I like to focus on. It is important and I am so grateful for each moment of Christ's life... But my favorite part is when He returned. I love hearing the story of Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene as she wept beside His tomb. I love that He returned again, three days later, after he had been resurrected. Three days later when he had completed His mission, and made it possible for possible for me and the people I love [and even the people I don't love so much] to also be resurrected and return to live with Him and God again.

I can only imagine what it was like. I would love to have been a fly on the wall, or a flower in a meadow he walked through. More than that, I would have loved to have been there. I would had loved to see my Savior standing there is all His glory. I would love to touch the nail prints in His hands. I would love to see His smile and His loving eyes.

Someday I will. And what a glorious day that will be. But in the meantime, I do my best to live worthily to be able to stand on that day and tell Him that I did my best, that I tried to emulate Him and heed His words. I know I have my weaknesses and I am working on them... But I hope that someday I can stand in the presence of my Savior and hear Him say "Well done, Shanna" as He envelops me in His arms.

So, as I reflect during this Easter season, I echo the words of President Gordon B. Hinckley:

He is our King, our Lord, our Master, the living Christ, who stands on the right hand of His Father. He lives! He lives, resplendent and wonderful, the living Son of the living God. Of this [I] bear solemn testimony this day of rejoicing, this Easter morning, when we commemorate the miracle of the empty tomb, in the name of Him who rose from the dead, even the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.