Easter Memories

Easter was a lovely time when I was a little girl.  Of course, on the Saturday before we hid Easter Eggs, hunted for Easter Baskets filled with robin eggs, jelly beans and chocolate bunnies, and wore new white gloves and pretty white Sunday hats to Church, but there was more to it than that.  Spring is the loveliest time of the year on the Arizona desert because new shoots of green grass pop up everywhere there is shade, wild flowers bloom, and everything feels fresh and clean.  In town citrus trees blossom, and their heavenly scent perfumes the air.  Sweat peas, snap dragons, stalks and pansies bloom in flowerbeds that soon will wither away under the summer sun.  It's as if the whole world has been reborn, which is the theme of Easter, isn't it?

When I was little we used to get up very early on Easter morning and drive over to the LDS Temple on Main Street.  It would still be dark, and although there were crowds of people it seemed as if a hush kept us talking in whispers as we gathered and sat in metal folding chairs on the lawn in front of the Temple, facing East.  There we watched a play, portraying the Savior's birth, his baptism and ministry, the atonement and crucifixion.  As the play progressed the eastern sky grew lighter and lighter, and then, as the final scenes where Peter and John, and finally Mary Magdalene came to the garden tomb, the sun would break above the horizon, and there was such of feeling of joy and reverence that I remember it still, though it has been close to 50 years since I attended an Easter Sunrise Service.

I always wanted to get a baby bunny or chick for Easter, but mom thought that was going a little bit too far.  On the other hand, she gave me two baby sisters, instead.  When I was nine my little sister Julie was born in on April, a couple of days before Easter.  Mom and dad brought her home Easter afternoon.  Then two years later, baby Sharon was born at the end of March,  again at Easter time.   Holding a new  baby sister, watching her sleep, her little eyes scrunched closed, waiting for those eyes to peek open, or taking her tiny hand and placing my finger inside, then feeling how her tiny fingers closed tightly around mine, gave me such a feeling of awe, such an overwhelming sense of love and happiness.  It helped me to understand how Jesus, my big brother, could love me so much that he would be willing to give his life for me, and to look forward to the day when I could be back home with Him and Heavenly Father, and all of my family, for eternity.