Easter

Easter really has taken on two meanings. The familiar bunnies and decorated chicken eggs that bunnies have to stay up late to hide so their kids (and/or family pets) can find them the next day. That part of Easter is really a fertility rite; bunnies and eggs, symbols of fertility; it's spring, crops are planted, we hope they do well and provide an abundance come harvest time.

Easter as a religious holiday is the day Jesus rose from the dead, after having died on the cross for our sins, to give us the gift of forgiveness.

I'm not a member of any organized religion. I've explored many, and I've found truths in many. But I do feel that Jesus was a real person, and that God sent Jesus with a message of forgiveness. This isn't the message you usually get from most ministries. The message we usually get is, "if you don't do as we say you're going to hell".

If you take the time to read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you find a message of Love and Forgiveness, Jesus died to give us the gift of forgiveness, but it comes to us only if we also accept the responsibility to love and forgive, to love God with all of our hearts, soul, and mind, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to forgive and not to judge.

God didn't create us just to judge us and then send us to hell. What sense would that make? God didn't create us to hate and judge each other, we are all God's creation.

We all have what we would consider flaws; we hurt each other; we do things that are harmful to other life, and that can be anything because everything, even the rocks have life. But these things aren't really flaws; for if we were all "perfect", if none of us ever did harm, then there would be no choice to love, and that wouldn't be real love at all.

God could have made us perfect beings that always put others first, always thought in terms of least harm, the best for all life; the way we know we should think, but then our love wouldn't be genuine because it wouldn't be of our choice, and to the degree any choice did exist it wouldn't mean much. How hard is it to love someone who has always treated you perfectly, always put you first? God loves us and wants us to love God, and God could make our lives free of pain and suffering, but we need to make an unbiased choice to love. God gave us what we need to live a good life, but collectively we have to make that choice.

It seems pretty obvious to me why we have to forgive. Can you imagine a bunch of people going to heaven that still hold a grudge for each other? That wouldn't be heaven at all! And we can't ask God to ban others from heaven because we won't forgive them. We are all God's creation, why would God favor one over another? We could make this planet into a heaven if only we could all get love and forgiveness into our heart, and hatred and bitterness out. I believe that will happen eventually, but I do not know if it will be within my lifetime.

God has given us what we need to live a good life if we can get those things down but they are tough lessons and humans seem to be hard learners, some more than others, and unfortunately I'm pretty high up on the hard learner curve, but it's a question of how much pain we have to cause ourselves before we learn.

I believe this is why God has us here now; to learn to love one another; to learn to forgive. It's still a choice that we have to make ourselves, but the longer I live, the more I realize that not doing so only leads to pain.

I have wondered for a long time why God requires us to live in a way that is not our nature; when God does not place that same requirement on animals. But then I thought, what animals hold a long term grudge? And animals are infinitely better at giving unconditional love, real love; than people. It's already in their nature; for us we have to learn it. But then it occurred to me but that IS our nature; our human nature. Animals are born with instincts, they can do only what those instincts drive them to do, but humans do have the unique ability to adapt our behavior and learn; it just happens that pain is an unavoidable part of that process.

So I hope this Easter; we can see that Jesus came here to help us with that process; set the most perfect example that could be set for us and told us that we are capable of the same. Even greater deeds shall you do we were told.

Still, the world is full of discordance, bitterness, hatred, uncaring, greed. But I feel optimistic in that God has done things in my life that seemed impossible; and to be sure there are still some unanswered prayers requiring miracles, but I know all things are possible to God; and all things are possible to us with love, forgiveness, and God's help.

Hopefully, as a species, we can get over the name hangups, God is God whether God is called God or Allah, or number of names used by various world religions. Language is never completely adequate for communicating, it can only use symbols and all these names are only symbols for what God actually is. When we hear our leaders suggest that God will lead us to victory against our enemies, we must remember that our enemies are equally God's creation and God does not wish any of us to harm each other.

The basic truths underlying the world's religions are really all the same; even more so when you look closely at source documents and avoid the biased interpretations of religions institutions.

We need to give thanks for each other and love and forgive each other while we are here. Whatever comes next, right now we are here, and right now each other is what we have, and God's love. If we can love and forgive each other than I think there is hope for our species and our planet and God won't have to hit the cosmic reboot button.