What Do Chocolate Bunnies Have To Do With Easter?

Growing up in England, Easter morning meant a big, colorful box containing a huge chocolate egg with half a dozen little chocolates inside. And my parents never stopped my sisters and I from finishing the whole thing!

I don't remember having chocolate bunnies but they are everywhere right now.Yesterday I spotted the perfect Easter bunnies for my little granddaughters--one was pink with white polka dots, and the other grass green with polka dots.  They are adorable and I can't wait to see how the girls will  react--that is, until their mother gives them maybe one ear to eat and confiscates the rest for another day!

But looking at the chocolate bunnies sitting on my kitchen counter made me think.  What is the connection between bunnies, eggs, and Easter?  The only explanation I can think of is that bunnies multiply rapidly and eggs are essential for life--and that these facts symbolize the most wonderful truth that we celebrate at Easter: Christ rose from the dead and through faith in Him, we receive new life.  Spiritual, eternal, life-changing, new life.

It is the most wonderful thing possible when you really receive new life from God--not merely a sense that you must go to church or do something to get His favor.  Look at these amazing promises for everyone:

• John 1:12  "To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God"
• John 10:10  "I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full"
• 2 Corinthians 5:17  "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come"

I've been leading a five week growth group and it's been exciting to hear from each woman how their relationship with Jesus has changed their lives.  They see themselves differently, they are learning what new life means and, based on God's promises, they can each say:

• I am completely forgiven and fully pleasing to God.
• I am totally accepted by God.
• I am deeply loved by God
• I am absolutely complete in Christ

We've been studying and discussing, The Search for Significance (Amazon.com), a resource I'd recommend for understanding the new life Christ makes possible, and that Easter symbolizes.

Hope your Easter celebration is really a celebration-not just a great meal and over-dosing on chocolate, but an inner joy and radiance that comes because Jesus is alive in you. 

If you know more about the connection between chocolate eggs and bunnies and Easter--write a quick response below.  I'd love to know more!