Greatest Gift Of All - by Sue Campbell

This week, I was reading April’s Parenting Christian Kids newsletter we subscribe to from Group Publishing.  I started with the first article and had one of those “aha” moments.   You know, when the dots are connected in a different way than ever before.  I’ve heard the connection between Christmas and Easter many times and in many ways, but this time, it struck me in a fresh, new understanding. 

In the article, ‘Promise in the Emptiness,’ the writer says,

“Christmas has the tree, and the stable and, of course the Divine Infant.  These are all physical things we could touch, and understand.  But Easter is different.  In many ways, it’s about celebrating emptiness:  a missing person, unoccupied burial clothes, and a vacant tomb.  When you think about it, celebrating the emptiness is very different than celebrating the overflowing gifts and abundance we do at Christmas.”

With Christmas, we can’t wait to see what’s in that wrapped box under the tree.  We hope it’s the thing we’ve been wishing for – hoping for – wanting – expecting.  There’s supposed to be something special in that box.

But, what if that’s what happened at Easter too?  What if there was still something in that tomb?  That’s what the women who went there were expecting, that’s what Jesus’ friends and disciples were grieving over.  His cross was empty, but they didn’t expect that to be the case with his tomb.  But Praise God, it was! 

We often say that we receive the ‘greatest gift of all’ on Christmas morning – the birth of Jesus.  But, I’m not sure if that’s the case.  I’m thinking that we actually receive the greatest gift on Easter morning – when we receive the gift of the empty tomb.  At Christmas, we may or may not get what we we’re hoping, wanting, expecting in a gift box.  But at Easter, we always get what God promised – incredible, undeniable, earth-shaking HOPE – in the resurrection of our Savior.  It’s God’s for the giving and ours for the receiving.