#10 - Reclaiming Easter (Part 1) - The Miracle of Easter

Barbara Rainey's Top 10 Interviews

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the series
Reclaiming Easter (Part 1) - The Miracle of Easter
Reclaiming Easter (Part 2) - Regaining the High Ground
Reclaiming Easter (Part 3) - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Easter

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript

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The Miracle of Easter

Guest: Barbara Rainey

From the series: Reclaiming Easter (Day 1 of 4)

Air date: March 16, 2015

Bob: This is the season of the year—the Easter season—when Barbara Rainey says we ought to be contemplating how, as forgiven people, we have a responsibility to forgive others.

Barbara: It’s essential for every marriage, it’s essential for every family, it’s essential for every working relationship because we’re all broken and we’re all going to make mistakes. We’re going to all need to, not only give forgiveness, but to be granted forgiveness. The more families can talk about forgiveness, the more it becomes something that they understand / they can grasp—they know how to practice it / they know what it looks like.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, March 16th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I’m Bob Lepine. We’re going to focus today on how you can make the Easter season a more special and more meaningful season at your house. Stay tuned.

1:00

Bob: And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Monday edition. You know, if this was the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, we would all be very aware that Christmas was just around the corner. You couldn’t go anywhere without knowing that it’s Christmas time.

Dennis: The culture celebrates it—in fact, overdoes the giving aspect of Christmas.

Bob: But here it is—we’re a few weeks away from Easter, and there is pretty much nothing that indicates that to you if you’re out in the shopping mall or if you’re driving in your car. Easter just isn’t talked about—it’s ignored.

Dennis: It, unfortunately, is—one of the most holy and profound weeks in any person who professes to follow Jesus Christ.

Bob: Right.

Dennis: It’s because of what He did and what Easter represents that we have hope—not only of eternal life—but also a message to bring to our culture.

2:00

I’m going to tell you something, Bob—if I’ve ever sensed a need for us, as adults, and our children to have hope, it’s today—because I think, in a lot of places, followers of Christ are being robbed of their hope. We have a special guest with us on today’s broadcast.

Bob: In fact, we could say this is your favorite guest; can’t we? [Laughter]

Dennis: I think she’s been my favorite for 42 years and 43 Christmases. We laugh about this all the time. We had a big joke, early in our marriage, about how many Christmases we had celebrated. We always celebrate—

Barbara: —one more Christmas than anniversary.

Dennis: Yes, so it’s kind of tricky—anyway, 43 Christmases / 42 years of marriage. Welcome to the broadcast, Sweetheart.

Barbara: Thanks. Glad to be here.

Bob: You need to be counting how many Easters you’ve celebrated because that’s what we’re talking about here; right?

Barbara: That’s what we’re talking about—that’s right. Yes, instead of Christmases—you’re right.

Bob: And you’re very aware of the fact that this is a culturally-ignored holiday. As a result, a lot of Christians don’t even think about Easter until it is like: “Oh, this Sunday, it’s Easter!”

3:00

Barbara: Oh, yes—like “…tomorrow.”

Bob: Yes.

Barbara: No, Christians are not thinking about it. Part of it is because we’re so used to being surrounded by everything that reminds us of Christmas during the month of December and, sadly, months before the month of December; but Easter is not like that. We don’t have music that’s playing on the radio, we don’t have decorations that are in every store, and we don’t have lights strung from houses. We don’t have anything that calls our attention to the fact that Easter is about to come and that Easter is the most important moment in all of history.

Dennis: You believe that, today, we need to be preparing our homes and our hearts for Easter.

Barbara: Exactly. We think a lot about advent when it comes to Christmas—and about preparing our hearts to worship and to rejoice at Christmas—but we don’t do much of that for Easter.

4:00

Now, there are those who practice Lent—who do some preparing of their hearts for the celebration of Easter—but it’s a much smaller proportion of the general population / it’s a very small portion of the Christian population. As a whole, we don’t do much to anticipate or prepare for the celebration of Easter.

Easter should be much more joyous / much more almost rambunctious of a celebration than Christmas is because we have so much to rejoice over because of what Christ did for us on the cross.

Bob: You didn’t grow up in a church tradition where Lent was a part of your practice; did you?

Barbara: That’s correct—I did not.

Dennis: Did you, Bob?

Bob: I didn’t either—although, in recent years, we’ve made it a part of our family’s personal practice—just for the reason that you mentioned—so that we can begin orienting our thinking / something that reminds us, in the weeks leading up to Easter, what it is we’re focusing on as we head toward the celebration of the resurrection. Have you started to engage in any of these Lenten practices yourself?

5:00

Barbara: Yes, we have. Dennis and I have talked about it. In fact, we created something for families to help families focus on preparing their hearts for Easter. We created a resource for families called The Messiah Mystery™, which helps families f...