Easter inspiration from China

On Sunday, a little girl was skipping happily towards the door of our church. She told an elderly lady who was arriving at the same time, how much she was looking forward to Easter. The lady asked if she was exited about getting her Easter eggs. ‘No’, the girl said, ‘I want to praise Jesus, because He rose from the dead!’ I smiled as I witnessed this little exchange. The young girl set the elderly sister straight, without any pretense at all, and excitedly continued her way into the church. Being steeped in bunnies, eggs and other commercial ideas of Easter had not clouded her joy over Jesus’ victory over death.
Better than the Easter bunny
That is not to say God does not care about eggs. The story below was told to us by a house church pastor in China. Perhaps a good one to read to your children at your Easter breakfast!
“We have one sister who is a new believer and she did not have enough money to buy food. There were six people in her home and they could only afford a few green leafy vegetables for their family, but they had three chickens. This sister who was a new believer prayed over the chickens and asked God to help them lay six eggs per day and that is what the chickens did. In this way the family was able to add protein to their diet.”
“For Chinese New Year, when persecution in China was getting stronger, the family decided to celebrate by eating one of their chickens. The problem was that this only left them with two chickens, but they prayed and to this day those two chickens are laying six eggs per day!”
“This might not seem like a major deal to western Christians, but it has spoken volumes to the family. They praise God for the six eggs they have every morning and preach the Gospel to their neighbors.”
One Comment
Where in the word of God does He tell us to celebrate Easter? I see where He says to celebrate Passover to commemorate His death, and the First Fruits Wave offering to celebrate His resurrection but there is nowhere that He says to celebrate Easter. Easter is not Christian but of Pagan origin. Why would Jesus want us to celebrate a Pagan festival to remember His sacrifice for us?