"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though He may die, he shall live." -John 11:25

To some kids, Easter morning means chocolate bunnies and jelly beans. But is that all there is to Easter?

Most people know that Easter is the day to celebrate "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ," but not everyone knows what this means! What does "resurrection" mean? Why is it so important?

Let's start w-a-a-y back at the dawn of creation, when God created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden. He told them they could eat any fruit in the garden, except for the fruit of ONE tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You guessed it- they ate the forbidden fruit. Because of this bad thing Adam and Eve did, they began to die. Not all at once- Adam lived to be about 900 years old! God had intended for people to live forever, but once Adam disobeyed God, he began to die, and now we all die sooner or later. Death is the punishment for sin.

Sinful people cannot survive in God's presence, because He is so holy. But God wanted to be friends with mankind once again, and He wanted them to have a chance to live forever again, like He originally planned. In the Old Testament, He told His people to sacrifice animals to take away their sins. They did this for many years, but the blood of goats and bulls can only hide sins, it can't take them away. A perfect sacrifice is needed to take sins away completely.

About 2000 years ago, God sent His Son Jesus to our planet. Jesus lived a perfect life- He never did anything wrong. Jesus would make the PERFECT sacrifice!

Jesus was nailed to a cross, on a day we now remember as Good Friday. He died, and was buried in a tomb. Three days later, some of His friends came to visit the tomb, and they were amazed to find an angel there instead of Jesus! Jesus wasn't there! The angel told the friends that Jesus had risen from the dead- He was alive!

When Jesus died on the cross, he was taking our punishment for us. We deserve to die, but he died in our place. All we have to do is BELIEVE that He did this for us, and we will live forever with Him up in heaven! Our bodies will die someday, but the "real" us will still live. That's called "everlasting" or "eternal" life. Isn't that good news!

On Easter Sunday, Christians everywhere are rejoicing! They are celebrating because Jesus is alive, and if we believe Him, we can live forever, too! Hallelujah!

So that's what Easter is all about! If you would like to accept Jesus as your savior, you can go HERE and read how. God bless you, and happy Easter!