PASSOVER OF THE RESURRECTION

In all the rush from one place to another, the joyful colors of spring and Easter may be seen everywhere. Sometimes in this avalanche of toys and candy and color, it is easy to forget the true meaning of Easter. It is my attempt, with the aid of other Christians celebrating the Resurrection of the Savior, to direct our minds and hearts to the Lord. Many of the traditions of the season pre-dated the Christian celebration of the Savior's Resurrection on that Spring morning hundreds of years ago. But maybe those symbols, just as our hearts, can be "converted" to strengthen us. Below there are symbols and their Christianized meanings, as well as scriptures for each one. I have thought that these would make excellent stuffers for plastic Easter eggs, with the scriptures used for discussion. Then, when we are greeted by these symbols at the stores and in the streets, we can smile as we think of Him who has redeemed us all.

Symbol	Scripture Passage	Meaning
Angels	Matthew 28:5-6	Proclaiming that He is risen
Blue	John 14:2-3	Heaven, where we may dwell with the Savior
Bunny	John 10:10	New and Abundant life; We need to share Gospel and multiply truth and be peaceful like our Savior
Butterfly	1 Corinthians 15-3-4	Our life, tomb and Resurrection brought to pass through the Savior's Atonement
Candle	John 8:12	Jesus is the light of the world
Chicks	Matthew 23:37	New life (leaving tomb); We are protected by the Savior as chicks are protected by their mother hen
Cross	John 19:17-19	Death of Savior, the empty cross reflects that He is no longer there
Daffodil	Matthew 24:31	New life, proclaiming good news
Easter basket	Mark 13:27	Gathering of God's children into His fold
Easter clothes	2 Corinthians 5:17	New clothes = new life
Easter egg hunt	Jeremiah 16:16	Responsibility of the believers to be hunters and fishers of men
Easter eggs	Matthew 27:59-60	Tomb, awaiting new life
Easter Lily	1 John 3:3	Purity of Savior
Folded burial napkin	John 20:5-7	He is not here!
Green	1 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:10	Hope in the Resurrection and Eternal Life
Hot Cross Buns	John 6:51	Jesus is bread of life, and the cross represents is His death
Lamb	John 1:29	Lamb of God, the everlasting sacrifice for our sins
Orange	Romans 5:11	Joy we receive through the Savior's Atonement
Palm branches	John 12:12-13	Triumphal entry into Jerusalem
Pink	John 3:16	God's love to sacrifice His Son so that we can return to Him
Pretzel	1 Corinthians 5:7	Unleavened bread, arms folded in prayer
Purple	Mark 15:17	Royalty, the King of Kings
Red	Matthew 26:28	Blood of the Savior shed to redeem us
Resurrection	John 20:11-16	He lives! We will live again
Rooster	Matthew 26:35	Reminder to not deny Savior as Peter did
Sweet spices	Mark 16:1; John 19:40	Sweet spices were used in preparation for the Savior's burial
Tomb	Luke 24:2-3	He is risen!
Tulips	Romans 6:5; John 11:25	New life, springing out of dead ground
White	Isaiah 1:18	Purity
Yellow	Matthew 4:16	Jesus is the light that leads us through darkness

Intrigued

Sometimes it happens.  Sometimes something (at work, generally) comes up that spurs my interest and I invest time to learn more about it or comprehend it.

For example, my company has a client that makes rubber floor mats, primarily for the dairy industry, out of used tires.  I was lucky that the contact with whom I usually speak was patient because that inspired many questions.  Where do they get the tires?  What inspired this idea?  How is it done?  In addition to the questions I asked him, I investigated the subject.  I am still curious on this topic.  If I were in school, I would have written a research paper.  I know, I am a nerd.  I was thinking that if I were a reporter, I would probably be able to obtain more information.  Particularly on what a certain major supermarket chain does with my tires that they make me pay to recycle.  In the future, this topic alone may become a post because I think it is neat that this environmentally unfriendly eyesore:

can become this ecologically savvy and humane product:

(This picture is borrowed.)

It really speaks to my love the planet (and the cows!) soul.

This same interest, one that meant that throughout the day my thoughts were going back to the same question, happened just last week.  A prospective customer called wanting to know some basic but random information.  He wanted to know if we could measure the velocity of the water leaving out machine at a specific distance from the point of exit.  Sounds simple enough, right?  In reality, this question is typically unnecessary for 99.999% of the people who talk to us.

But then there's the random person every several years who asks.  At first I thought maybe he was looking for something akin to a speedometer, but for water.  I asked my tech service.  This is not a product we offer.  As it turns out, there are formulas that can help to derive this information (although an apparatus of some sort would be easier, if you ask me.  Program IT to do the work, I say).  Then... it sounds like physics.  And physics, ladies and gentlemen, was not my forte in school.  Not in high school.  Not in college.  But I was captivated.  I looked up even more formulas to resolve unknowns.  I found more unknowns.  I asked the gentleman questions about his application (which was very different from any system we offer or any application we can do).  He wanted to create a water curtain, essentially, to act as a sound barrier.  I found the application just as intriguing as the math involved.  Although my interest diminished after a couple of hard work days and the knowledge that I will probably never come to a suitable answer, just writing about it gets me all fired up again. 

It is a thirst for knowledge.  A desire to comprehend.  It's the thing that makes me the red-blooded nerdy girl that I am.  It's true that I am not a brilliant mad scientist, but that's probably a good thing.  The truth remains that there come days when a good question comes to the surface... and somewhere in the ho-hum doldrums of same day, same stuff land, I have a spark that elevates me to look at things from a new perspective.

Am I the only one who really gets that interested in some random topic?