Today is the occasion we mark the resurrection of Christ on the third day following His crucifixion. We have adopted the name “Easter” for this Sunday. That word is of uncertain origins, although it is claimed to be derived from the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess of springtime and fertility. I’m not altogether convinced of that, but admit the name seems less fitting than Resurrection Sunday.
There is a passage in T&C 161: 29 that captures a glimpse of that morning from the Lord’s point of view: “I know words are inadequate to capture His feelings on the morning of His resurrection. He had the deep satisfaction of having accomplished the most difficult assignment given by the Father, knowing it was a benefit to all of His Father’s children, and it had been done perfectly.”
The Lord’s resurrection disrupted the Fall of Man, reversed the scourge of death, prevented entropy from destroying the creation, and was the single most significant event in history. The Lord attained to the resurrection, and we are all beneficiaries of that triumph. The Lord experienced a fullness of joy as a consequence of His sacrifice and return.
The best way to remember the Lord on this date, in my view, is to rejoice and find things in this world that are gifts to us from God: Our families, our lives, sunshine, birds that sing, the beauty and smell of flowers, sunrises and sunsets, music and a hundred-thousand little joys we experience daily. When we do something in obedience to God, my experience is that it likewise brings satisfaction and joy.