Easter.

Like Christmas, it’s a time for joy. A time to welcome the coming of spring and warmer weather, and the new growth and renewal of life it brings. A time to get outside and enjoy the scent of flowers in bloom and the warm rays of a sun that had been elusive during the cold winter months.

For Christians worldwide, Easter is a time for rejoycing over Christ’s resurrection and triumph over death. We celebrate this holiday in many ways. We attend church or special religious services like sunrise services. We have picnics with family and hold Easter egg hunts for our children.

And like Christmas, we mark the importance of the day with special symbols like crosses covered with white cloths, Easter lilies, which grow abundantly in the spring, and the Easter egg, orginally a pagan symbol to represent the coming of spring that evolved in the Christian symbol of Christ’s tomb and his resurrection.

And like Christmas, the true meaning of the season sometimes gets lost in the celebration and activities of the day.

Yes, we celebrate Christ’s resurrection and its meaning that man’s sins can be forgiven, but it’s more than that.

We have to remember that Jesus came to us in humility as a child and his life was one of sacrifice and love. He taught us a new way to live and preached that we should love, not hate, the people we meet daily. He preached and taught in his native land all the time knowing many of the people he spoke to would eventually take him into custody and have him killed.

When politicians and athletes do outrageous things, they used the phrase, “I’m making a statement.”

Christ’s resurrection was his statement, and many in the world have understood it.

So today, while we attend church and spend time with our families, let’s take a little time for reflection on Christ’s life and the impact it can have on us, and how the symbols of this season can remind us of that.

We can always use that kind of love.