A five day break

Here in Australia we have a unique experience this year with Easter and Anzac combining to give us a five day break. Apparently it won't happen again until 2095!

It seems that everyone has traditions that occur in their families at Easter time.

I have spoken to one lady whose family makes it the time to gather fire wood with multiple chainsaws and a picnic in the paddock.

Many people go camping as autumn is often the perfect time for campfires and hiking.

At Oakbank the country race club hosts the biggest steeplechase event in Australia over the Saturday and Monday of Easter. The traffic is bumper to bumper past our gate from early in the morning, with cars piled high carrying barbeques and deck chairs for the perfect picnic race meeting. The course is very pretty and while jumps races have come in for scrutiny lately it is still a popular family event.

With all these alternatives it is difficult to broach the subject of why we have Easter on our calendar as a nation. Christmas is somehow easier as a baby in a manger is cute and we can easily make it something that is cuddly and sweet.

Easter is much more confronting. The cross is not cute, or cuddly or sweet, and we struggle to understand the relevance in 2011. So we go camping, and to the races and we try not to think too deeply about things that we find hard.

But people throughout history have been drawn to the cross as the answer to the big questions of life. At those times when we do contemplate why there is trouble in the world and why bad things happen to good people,why families break down or people hurt each other, Jesus dying on a cross to make us right with the God actually makes sense. The God who made the trees we cut up as fire wood, the scenery that we endure camping conditions to enjoy, the beautiful horses we admire at the races, planned the cross so we could spend eternity with him.

All this comes into sharp focus when you are in the situation that Wayman and I in at the moment. Eternity is real to us, and after a life time of understanding that Jesus died so we could spend it with him in glory we are more convinced than ever that Easter is the most beautiful celebration of all because of the stark brutality of the cross.