Resurrecting hope: An Easter invitation

Sunday is Easter, or Resurrection Day as I call it. It comes early this year, but it's right on time. Easter is an appropriate time to take a look at what matters most, and we sure need the reflection.

For Christians, the resurrection is the most powerful aspect of our faith. Without it, there is no faith. It is the resurrection that gives Jesus the credibility to declare He is who He says He is. The empty tomb speaks of the power of God, no more evident than in the resurrection of His Son from the dead.

What I have my heart fixed on, as I do every year as people gather in churches everywhere, is that Easter will not be just another annual observance of people donning fancy, colorful clothing and hats that give the Kentucky Derby a run for its money. Oh, don't get me wrong. I love seeing it. It's beautiful. Our culture has shifted so much in the other direction that it's a joy to see people dressed to the nines, dusting off the stylishness that used to be customary. But we need more than a resurrection of style. We need a resurrection of hope.

Too many have lost hope, mainly because too many have looked in the wrong direction for it. They have looked to politicians and careers and entertainment, and yes, some have looked to friends and families. And while none of that is bad, none of it can provide the hope we need. We need something greater than shoes and shirts, suits and ties. We need more than lace on our blouses and bling on our rings. And as much as we like breaking out the honey-glazed ham and deviled eggs and topping it off with angel food cakes, even that isn't enough to revive our hope and reinvigorate our spirits.

The beauty of the resurrection is that it provides more than temporary fixes. It's an eternal hope. It provides what we really need if we open our hearts to it. It allows us to experience what we've always longed for, what we were created for. Nothing else qualifies. Politicians -- even decent ones -- fail. Careers change. Entertainment stales. And loved ones, unfortunately, die. But Jesus arose. And come Sunday and the next day and the next, He'll still be the resurrected Savior. He is, in fact, our only hope.

So my prayer is that people will gather together this coming Sunday, but they will encounter something -- someone -- so inspiring and so powerful and so alive that they won't wait until next year to gather again. My prayer is that Easter will be so real for them that they never want to walk away again, but they want a relationship with Jesus for themselves and their children; they want it for everyone.

It's been what seems like an eternity of arguing about politics, reading about Hollywood abuse, crying about violence in the nation -- and, for most of us, that's just the external stuff; we could go on and on about the things we are facing in our own lives. All these things weigh on us. I will never understand how people function without hope in a Savior, and I will absolutely never understand why they would want to. The Good News, of course, is they don't have to.

We each have to decide if we will receive the invitation we have been given. We may not have been invited to the "cool" kid's party as a child or the social event of the year as an adult, but we have been invited today by the King of the universe into a personal relationship with Him -- and all we have to do is RSVP our "yes." I promise it's the greatest decision we will ever make. And it is upon making that decision that we finally understand that Easter -- the Resurrection -- never was about the clothes, the food, and certainly not the bunny, but it has always been about a Savior who loves us so much, He died, rose again and ever lives -- offering the true hope of resurrection to a lost and dying world.

Will you accept His offer?

Adrienne Ross is owner of Adrienne Ross Communications and a former Southeast Missourian editorial board member. Contact her at aross@semissourian.com.