If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you, (Matthew 17:20b).

My mother hid eggs for us. And she hid our Easter baskets too. I don’t know how she managed it, but I don’t remember finding my basket until the end. It was as if she orchestrated the journey from egg to egg to basket. The crescendo always came at the right moment.

Eventually, the egg hunt fell by the wayside. But we loved our baskets, so they kept coming. Milk chocolate bunnies every year, the solid ones with the basket on the bunny’s back.

I graduated from lacy ankle socks to orchid corsages–the kind you get at the grocery store. I remember new dresses, hats, shoes, and white gloves. I have a faded picture of me as an eight year old in my new dress and bonnet. We had just walked home from Mother’s Methodist church that had burgundy padded pews and a portrait of Christ praying in the garden.

When I was 12, I remember waking to the milk chocolate bunny, a white chocolate cross, and a mustard seed pendant necklace. Matthew 17:20 was etched on the back.

When my oldest daughter married, the mustard seed pendant was her “something borrowed” pinned inside her dress. When her brother went to Iraq, she gave it to him for his journey.

My children are all grown. But I still prepare a basket for each household. Chocolate eggs, and Peeps for color. Most of the kids give them to said oldest sister because she loves them and they don’t.

I also throw a handful of black jelly beans into each basket–again not because everyone loves them. But because my father loved them so. A tribute to him.

Easter is about the past. About the Savior who came to us, walked and talked with us, and then died for each of us. It is a season when we remember His sacrifice–His forty days of want, His torture, His death. His chosen pain for us.

Easter is about today. The only day we have in our hands to love each other. The day to reflect His love as closely as dust can reflect glory.

Easter is about the future. It’s about the Savior who is coming again so we can walk and talk with Him on heavenly roads. It’s about the seeds of faith we carry with us to plant and nurture in others.

Seeds of faith produce a crop of hope. That is Easter.

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