Easter. What does that word make you think of? Chocolate? Eggs? Pink bunnies? How about a huge stone? Empty grave clothes? A risen Lord?

In recent years, the commercialization of Easter has taken over, and we have forgotten the real reason for celebrating Easter.

The Easter season is cluttered with pictures of giant bunnies, ads for easter-egg hunts, and giant bags of candy in the shapes of flowers, leaves, bunnies, and eggs. And what are they all for?  Well, of course, advertising for the Easter Bunny!  Now, this Easter Bunny isn't really like Santa Claus. You don't have to be good all year in order to get something from the Easter Bunny; he (or she) just gives you candy on Easter because, well, he (or she) just does.

It's sad that a holiday that was made to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, has been turned into another reason for people to shout, "ME! ME! ME!"  Our society has produced masses of attention hordes. Everyone wants to be in the spotlight. Everyone wants it all to be about "ME!"--and Easter is another time for us to do that. "The Easter Bunny shows up and gives candy to me."  "We search for eggs to get more candy for me."  "We eat lots of food to fill up my stomach."  Just as Christmas has turned into an "all about me" holiday, I believe that Easter has, too.

Since I live in Virginia, very close to the nation's capitol, it's easy to get wrapped up in the busyness of Easter--or, really, the busyness of anything at all. And, while things tend to get busy around this time, I believe that it's a good thing. One reason this is a busy time for myself and my family is because of our church's annual Easter pageant. We, as a church, take months of preparation time in order to present a pageant that shows what Easter is really about. It's not about the candy, or the egg hunts, or the bunny. It's about Jesus's life, His death on the cross for our sins, and His resurrection.

This Easter, take a different approach to how you view the holiday. Try not to get caught up in the fact that you get candy, or that you get to run around someone's yard looking for brightly-colored eggs. Remember that Christ is the real reason we celebrate Easter. Just forget about all of the commercialization and remember Christ this Easter.