EASTER SUNDAY AND BIRTHDAYS

I only remember it happening once before in my life, when Easter Sunday was this close in proximity to the date of my birth.

The reason I can recall it happening is that for the first time in my life I was able to have empathy with those who have but one gift receiving day per year since the date of their birth falls very close to Christmas.

This, if you think of it, is probably one of the great ironies in history, since many scholars have concluded that the Savior’s birth happened sometime in the spring, since the Shepherds were tending their flocks on the hills during the evening.

Anyway, I remember waking on that long ago Easter Sunday morning and finding a new baseball glove in my Easter Basket along with the green fake grass, candy Easter Eggs which rather quickly became one with the fake grass and a couple of the hens eggs we had colored the afternoon before.

Since the baseball glove was unusual I was rather excited until when I showed it to my dad he wished me happy birthday. The scam was immediately evident. We would be putting candles in the deviled eggs instead of on a birthday cake.

I loved the glove and ate the stuff the Easter Bunny had brought. Since this was years before I gave up eating chocolate (for religious reasons – which is another thought to write about). I had the ears and tail of the delicious chocolate Easter Bunny eaten long before mother told me not to eat any candy before breakfast.

I don't think my funk lasted all that long, probably not beyond my first game of playing catch with my new baseball glove, but I did for some reason feel more than a bit miffed at having to share my special day with the Redeemer of the world.

Now that I can fast forward more than 6 decades I am able to report a rather remarkable shift in my attitude.

I know I won't be getting a baseball glove and as close to eating the ears of a chocolate Easter Bunny I will come will be having a Lindt ‘white’ chocolate ball. The reason I can eat white chocolate is because it doesn't contain any xanthines as do the rest of the varieties of chocolate. Not that there is anything wrong with xanthines and in fact recent propaganda indicates that eating chocolate, especially the bitter dark stuff is actually very good for one’s health.

Anyway I digress, the short story is there was a time in my life I felt a need to experience giving up something I was addicted to and in my case chocolate qualified.

As I was saying, now that I can fast forward more than 6 decades I am able to report a rather remarkable shift in my attitude.

It would be extremely difficult to select any day of the year, which
would be mine alone to celebrate my birth, where the remembrance of the Atoning Sacrifice of the Savior wouldn't also be in my mind sharing that date.

I wish I had been more cognizant of the significance of His merciful act as a young boy, but I am grateful for the depth of feeling that now fills my soul as I contemplate His love for His brothers and sisters.

I am grateful for scriptures which help me to walk where He walked and keep me aware of how far I have yet to go.

As I read of His earthly walk I am reminded of how insignificant baseball gloves and all the other stuff we think we cannot live without really are.

I remember the wonderful day when I realized there was a time when I had to cease praying in order to switch to a more formal type of prayer and realized how different I had become from that boy who had to share his birthday with Easter Sunday.

I spend a lot of time every Sunday, especially during these days when the prophet of God has encouraged us to make the Sabbath a delight, thinking about how grateful I am to have this final phase of my life where I have every day of the week which I can make a delight, by thinking of Jesus the Christ and all He and my Father in Heaven have done to open eternal possibilities to all.

I have hardly begun to exhaust my list of the changes which have accompanied my maturation process in the area of being able to have my birthday in such close proximity to Easter Sunday, but it is sufficient to say, on my soon to be reminder day that another year of my mortal allotment has passed, I will not be thinking of baseball gloves. Hopefully I will be pondering all the recent reminders of the eternal significance of Jesus the Christ and the everlastingness of his gift of mercy to us all.