An Easter reflection – by Asher Kirby, Spiritual Care Supervisor, Residential Aged Care

One of my favourite Easter traditions is the Easter Egg Hunt. In my extended family gatherings, the young children are sent into the garden in the afternoon to find hidden chocolate eggs. One year, the egg hiders decided to save time by hiding the eggs early in the day. As the grandchildren ran around discovering lovely shiny foil-wrapped packages, we quickly realised that the day was hotter than anticipated, so the children were collecting foil-wrapped pools of melted chocolate!

I love Easter for the holidays, celebrations and traditions (even when they don't go quite as planned). I also love it for the meaning it holds for me as a Christian – the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus. I draw deep meaning from this story, but I also draw meaning from the themes I see in the Easter events that I believe are common to us all.

For Christians, Good Friday is a day associated with grief, loss and uncertainty about the future, because it remembers the unexpected death of Jesus. We can all identify with the loss of a loved one, or grief over some aspect of life that has not gone the way we expected it to. We know the feeling of being unsure about the future, and we reach out to others for support.

Easter Sunday, by contrast, is for Christians a day connected with hope, celebration and new life, as it commemorates the resurrection of Jesus. For most of us, we can easily identify with these feelings of celebration and new life. We look for hope in our relationships and our work, and we offer hope to one another when we bring all of who we are into those spaces.

While each of our experiences is unique, there is commonality in the journey we are on. This Easter, may you find hope and celebration as you go through the weekend, even amidst any grief or uncertainty you are carrying.

(And if chocolate eggs are your thing – may yours be non-melted and delicious!)