12 Witnesses

Easter is my favorite Christian day of celebration. Heck, it’s my favorite holiday of any kind.

I know many will wonder about Christmas. It seems to be the favorite of most Christians. Christmas is a time of celebration and love. Honestly, I love Christmas. I love winter, snow, family, love and, of course, presents. The Christmas season is my favorite time of year. Easter is my favorite holiday.

In my church, during the Easter season, we decorate the Sanctuary with Easter lilies in the same way we decorate it with poinsettias at Christmas. I saw the list to buy lilies this morning and remembered my Grandmother. We lost her just under a year ago.

Mama Rogers was the soul of our clan. Her dedication to the Lord was evident in everything she did - or chose not to do. I remember summers at her house and her singing hymns in the kitchen as she cooked. When we sing those songs in church, I still hear her voice. It is hard for me to sing certain hymns now without crying.

Her influence has spawned a family full of ministers and ministers’ wives. Some of the godliest people I know are my close relatives. My uncle Ross Rogers is probably the kindest man of God I have ever met. He still serves on staff at Walnut Ridge Baptist Church in Arlington, TX, despite battling pancreatic cancer for the last 8 years. For those of you who don’t know anything about pancreatic cancer, once diagnosed, you usually pass on within about 6 months. Ross is not only alive, but still ministering. His cancer has just become active again, and he needs your prayers. Still, though, he ministers and this inspires me to godliness.

My uncle David Rogers is the pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Memphis - actually, the suburb Bartlett. It was him that first exemplified before me an absolute trust in the power and kindness of God. He was having a conversation with someone else, and didn’t even know I was listening. Both of these men got who they are from their parents. The tenderness and love for God, I know, came from Mama.

She led me to the Lord. She taught me about loving the Lord. She bought me my first (and maybe my second and third) Bible - which I used to read nightly at my bed, just like Papa Rogers.

Christmas is about family togetherness in the here and now, celebrating the Lord’s love and goodness. Easter, at least in part, is about the family of God being together in His full presence. It is the promise that we will be raised from the dead and that, even though we are separated from one another now, there will be a day when we will together bow at the feet of this Jesus, whom we loved together on earth. We have this truth to which we hold as an anchor beyond the veil, because Jesus Himself rose from the dead. It is a promise that we will join Him where He is.

This Easter, we will buy a lily in memory of Mama Rogers, and I will probably cry some more. I really miss her. Still, I will celebrate Easter with even more passion because she is not with us.

Easter is hope. Easter is a promise. Easter is my favorite.

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