by Melody K. Townsend
Happy Easter!
Cats love Easter! The anticipation of Spring, fulfilled at last. Sunshine, bird song, brilliant flowers across an emerald carpet under a flawless azure sky populated with flocks of clouds. And all those colorful plastic eggs to seek and find and swat around!
My humans are smart, though. They know that chocolate candy and Easter lilies are toxic and can be deadly when ingested by cats. No Easter grass, either! We love to play with shiny, colorful, scrunchy things, but if we accidentally swallowed some of that decorative plastic grass, it could cause a potentially fatal intestinal blockage. So my humans are careful to keep these and other dangerous attractions out of our territory!
For companion animals, children, and adults, Easter is celebrated with treat time, play time, and ceremony. But were there no treats or games or ritual observation, Easter would yet remain the ultimate celebration of abundant and eternal life. Easter is an encounter with a supernatural Love that transcends what the human mind can comprehend.
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ: the darkest evening in all eternity, three days of anguish for a world of people hopelessly lost amidst the suffocating void of an empty soul, culminating in the most brilliant morning since the dawn of creation! Our almighty God, Who spoke our world into existence, called forth His only child, His beloved Son, to breathe again, to live again, to rise and walk out of the cold, hard burial chamber in which His body had been laid, and to celebrate His victory! Jesus conquered sin when He died on the cross. He conquered death when He rose to live forever.
He proved that with God, all things are possible. He overcame the world. No greater love has any man than this, and now nothing can separate us from the love of Christ! (John 15:13, John 16:3, Romans 5:6-8, Romans 8:35-39)
Easter is the ultimate love story, the offering of the only true, all-encompassing relationship that will never end.
When no other sacrifice would redeem the lost soul, Jesus endured mockery, lies, and abuse for every single beloved human offspring of our great God. He was tortured and mutilated for you. He was crucified, and He died for you.
He was resurrected for you. He is salvation through which you are adopted by God and gifted with an eternal inheritance.
Jesus is Love beyond what we can understand. It overflows our hearts, and we cannot grasp the reality that anyone could ever love us that much.
More than He loved Himself. More than He loved Heaven. More than anything.
But animals have spirits, not souls. So what could a cat possibly understand about Easter? About God?
I am created to bring praise to Him. Is anything more important than that?
The Bible tells us all to offer praise to our God: “Wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children; let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; His splendor is above the earth and the heavens!” ~ Psalm 148:10-13
In Revelation 5:13, John shares his vision of this praise taking place in Heaven! He writes, “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’”
This weekend, let us all enjoy the treats and games, the family gatherings and ceremonies.
Let us honor the Son above the symbolism. Let us ask God to resurrect Jesus in our souls, hearts, and minds, transforming our spirits every minute of every day as we strive to love like He loves, to worship and comprehend and believe and know who He is and why He came and what Easter is truly about.
A world-changing event. A life-changing transformation.
Love, defined.
Original Post March 2016