Happy Purim and Easter?

What a mish mash of holidays! Years of adding and creating new traditions out of old. Well, it is spring and there are new beginnings. Somehow eggs and rabbits got associated with this, I guess because of being "fruitful and multiplying"-- God's first instructions to his creation. It was said as a blessing after he first created male and female in Genesis 1:27-28. See

http://www.geocities.com/neil_loewen/Imagodei.html

for a visual representation of this.

Some say that being created in the image of God includes following this instruction and blessing of "being fruitful and multiplying". What is clear to me is that the union of male and female is a blessing to be enjoyed. Where there is blessing, more blessing will radiate outwards, and this is through having children and by their obedience to this most basic instruction of "being fruitful and multiplying".

Purim is a story from Persia-- the land where the legends of the fertility goddess Ishtar origninated. It also marked some new beginnings and a surprise ending in which the tables are turned on the villian Haman. Pur is connected with chance, the casting of lots. Chance is an unseen and unpredictable force, and in the story of Esther, you will not see any mention of God. With the development of the plot, you might not guess that there are unseen forces at work behind the scenes, even behind Mordechai and Esther and yet in the end, everything came together. The story of Jesus, his crucifiction and ressurection had some surprises for the people of that time as well in which the tables are turned-- what was meant for evil became ultimate good and marked a new beginning. Winter had come to an end and Spring was declared. So the holidays this weekend have some common themes after all.