New dresses, bunnies, and eggs aside, Easter has always been my favorite holiday. In elementary school I was aggravated that I had to go to school on Good Friday. After all, we were off for two weeks at Christmas and Easter was equally as important, or more so. Even as a child the importance of the “rest of the story” was apparent to me.

About twenty years ago our local newspaper published a front-page article saying that over fifty percent of Christians pastors did not believe in the resurrection. I remember thinking, how sad. It reminded me of the way I felt at the end of Jesus Christ Superstar. Andrew Lloyd Weber ended his famous musical drama with the crucifixion. Without the resurrection, the gospel message loses its joy, its victory, its power. We can die for ourselves. God doesn’t show his love for us, if Christ died and did not live again.

But Christ died and lived again. It is true. You have to take it on faith, but I am as certain of that truth as I am of the sun coming up in the morning and it causes a joy deep in my soul that nothing can shake. Believe the whole gospel message and you will know the joy, peace, and power that the living Jesus imparts through his Holy Spirit. Celebrate Easter.