If I were in the US today, I have already looked through an Easter basket, even though I'm well past the age of getting chocolately goodies and small amounts of silver money.  If I were back home, I would be experience both of my baby brothers' first Easter, watching them explore the oddities of colorful hardboiled eggs and being terrified of a large man in a furry costume.  I would sit in the living room and enjoy the company of my family and look forward to heading to Tulsa to spend the evening with church family.   

      Alternatively, if I were in my usual home in Indonesia, a fairly large village in Bali, I would be surrounded by the extremely visual Hindu presence, watching my host ibu put out her daily offerings to Brahma, Shiva, Wisnu, and other dieties, while my old bapak delicately places prayer flowers behind his ear.  But I'm not there either.  Instead, I am in central Java.  Rather than being surrounded by commercialism or inumerable handmade offerings, I have walked the streets among hijab-shrouded women and listened to the Muslim call to prayer.  I am thankful, though, because it has given me a unique opportunity to ignore everything that Easter represents in America and remember only the promise of salvation it truly represents.  I know the real story of Jesus and the life, love, and purpose he has given me.  But sadly, most of the people around me don't.  They don't know how much God has already done for them.  They make countless offerings for reasons they don't even know themselves, and are told not to question.  They strive to be as perfect as possible, in hopes that maybe in the end the good they are doing will outweigh the bad so that they can enter Paradise.  But how could it be different?  That is all they have ever known.  "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" (Romans 10:14-15).   Today I encourage you to join in prayer so that the Indonesian people, all 200+ million of them, will have a chance to hear what holidays like Easter are really about... And, if you feel obligated enough, do something about it yourself.  

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12