easter colors

Pale pink, lavender, soft yellow, light green stripes across the sign reminded me of the colors of Easter. They stuck me as wrong. They should be symbolic of what happened on the even we commemorate at Easter. For example, Christmas colors are red and green – evergreen for the eternal life Christ came to offer and red for the blood He shed to offer it, or at least that’s what my dim memory holds.

And so Easter colors should be something like a glorious sunrise – glowing colors that leap off a page or sign, like the sun bursting forth from the eastern horizon. This is the day when death died, when we were set free, when Christ defeated hell and Hades, when the greatest miracle of all time took place and heaven itself was set before us as an opportunity. This is the greatest victory celebration of all time, yet we celebrate it with pale pink and light blue eggs and bunny rabbits. We sit constricted in our muted Sunday best holding a pretty Easter lily in folded hands on our lap.

No, this is the day to leap to our feet in joy, belt out our songs of praise, wear the brightest clothes we have, and capture for a moment just the tiniest slice of the extravagant victory Christ won that day. This day deserves a dance like David’s when his daughter called him crazy. Even the Halleluiah Chorus is insufficient for this day. Sunbeams of brightest yellow gold pale in comparison to this day. On this day, Christ opened the door to heaven and to eternal life, to you and me. We are no longer trapped in sin; we no longer have to ponder why we’re here; we can know for certain what will become of us. All of this, because on this day, Christ conquered sin and death. The stone rolled away; the gates of heaven flew open wide. And He stepped forth to offer to you and to me, on a platter of brilliant glory, life, and life to the full, if only we will take it.