Easter

This time of year has always been special to me.  When I was a young girl, almost every spring meant a trip to a department store with my mom to find an Easter outfit.  We were not spoiled kids and didn't get new outfits on whims.  Usually we got school clothes in September and some summer "play clothes" when school let out.  But for Easter, we got new outfits.  Sometimes I would get new shoes and gloves, too.  Easter was one of the few times my family went to church together.  Most Sundays my brother and I would be dropped off at Sunday School, which we enjoyed and was where I gained a sweet testimony of Jesus Christ and his love and sacrifice for me, but on Easter we all went together.

I remember that often Pastor Sands would have a mock tomb and a large stone on the stage.  He would yell into the empty tomb, asking if Jesus were there.  I would be entranced by his Easter performances and, although I knew that Christ wasn't in a tomb on the stage of a church in California, I was drawn in, wondering if there might be some heavenly manifestations with each of his questions.

I don't know why, but Palm Sunday was always memorable for me, too.  The idea that Jesus rode into Jerusalem upon fronds of palms that his people lay on the road for him was a situation that I liked to imagine and picture in my mind.  I knew, even then, that Christ wouldn't leave the city again as a mortal man, and it made me happy to think that he was treated so kindly just days before he was betrayed, and hideously crucified.  I wonder why we don't talk much about Palm Sunday in the LDS Church.

I am truly grateful for what Christ chose to do for us.  His sacrifice was the ultimate gift.  I love my Lord and will celebrate his resurrection and atonement for me by trying to be more like him.