Spiritual Lessons From The Bunny, posted by Nancy L. Agneberg

The mystery is solved. My husband is the Easter Bunny. Well, maybe not THE Easter Bunny, but he takes on the role for an hour or so at our daughter's neighborhood annual Easter Egg hunt, and I think you will agree he is adorable. He says, other than not being able to see well and getting terribly hot inside the rabbit fur, it is a good gig.  Hearing "It's the Easter Bunny," as he saunters up the street waving his greetings followed by hugs from delighted children, even the shyest and youngest, means he will more than likely volunteer to be the bunny again next year. Besides, he doesn't have to talk and the hugs from the moms is a bonus benefit!  
     Yes, I know the Easter bunny, a symbol of fertility, is a pagan tradition, but as with many pagan traditions, it has been added alongside religious holiday celebrations and remembrances, and need not detract from the core of Easter's resurrection message. The Saxons' honored the goddess of spring and fertility, Eastre whose sacred animal was the hare, and it seems no accident to me that the Christian celebration of the resurrected Christ should be in the same season as spring. 
      "Spring and Easter are almost synonymous. The new life of spring, such as the flowers springing up in our gardens, is a symbol fully realized in the springing up of divine life in the inner depths of our hearts. The season of spring and the mystery of Easter, celebrated together, bring us from sorrow and death to the affirmation of hope and the experience of the renewal of life in our daily existence."
                A Monastic Year, Reflections from A Monastery
                Brother Victor-Antoine D'Avila-Latourette 


     The Easter Bunny, as part of the springtime and Easter renewal,  reminds me to welcome God in every form, even one in a bunny costume.