I don’t know about you, but February tends to be when I start looking ahead to the spring and tapping my foot a little impatiently. This is despite the fact that I know there’s still quite a few weeks of winter before the season changes (regardless of what any groundhog has to say for themself).
I think, in some ways, it’s because February is a transition in the church calendar as well. We have the final weeks of Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, and then Lent, which carries us to Easter.
I don’t go to a liturgical church, but I still think the rhythms of the church calendar can be instructive in our spiritual lives. We end the year with Jesus’ birth. We start the new year celebrating the visit of the Wise Men, Jesus’ baptism, and His first miracle at Cana, kicking off His ministry. And then, we transition to Lent — a time of remembering all that Christ has done for us as we prepare to celebrate His death and resurrection.
Easter is such an important time in the life of a Christ-follower. It is the crux of our faith. Without Jesus’ death and resurrection, Christmas would be pointless.
Everything would be pointless.
Because we would be stuck. Dead in our sin with no hope.
But Christ did come. He did die. And He was raised.
And the redemption we’re offered through Christ is the heartbeat underlying every faith thread in every work of Christian fiction.
It’s also the big push behind the Easter in Gilead multi-author series that Valerie Comer, Heather Gray, Narelle Atkins, Deb Kastner and I have been working on for the last year or so. The project had its ups and downs. We had authors come and go. In some ways, at many times, the whole thing felt doomed. But at the end of the day, God worked it all out.
So far, I’ve had the chance to read Valerie’s book, Her Unlikely Hero and Heather’s, His Runaway Crush. Both books are stories that are full of Jesus taking the broken parts of life and making them into something beautiful.
And, of course, some swoony romance to round things out.
My book, Her Billionaire Benefactor, will be the second to release (on March 14). If you’ve been following along with my books, you’ll have been to Gilead, Kansas, before in The Billionaire’s Nanny. In fact, the heroine of Her Billionaire Benefactor, is Wendy Hall. (Wendy is the sister of Whitney, who found her happy ending in The Billionaire’s Nanny.)
Wendy has been through some tragedy in her life. A lot of it is grist for the small town gossip mill. But a lot has been something she fought to keep hidden, even from her family. She’s in desperate need of a new beginning and some new hope, and maybe that gentle reminder that we all crave when we’re walking through hard times–that Jesus is with us, even when we don’t feel like He is.
Preston is only in town to make his great-grandmother happy. He was hoping it would be a fast trip. Fly in, donate money to the college, fly home and go about his billionaire ways. But his GG had other ideas. So here he is, stuck in Kansas. Helping with an Easter production, of all things. And trying not to notice just how badly he wants to find ways to ease the pain he sees in Wendy’s eyes.
I hope you’ll join us in Gilead in the coming weeks.
I’d love to chat about how (if at all) the season changing helps you focus your heart as you prepare for Easter. And if that’s too much thinking for when you’re reading this post, tell me about your favorite Easter tradition or a book that you loved that was Easter-themed.
I’ll give one commenter an advanced e-book copy of Her Billionaire Benefactor. I’ll draw a name on Saturday, February 11.
p.s. I have a free book through February 10th! If you haven’t read So You Want a Second Chance, you can grab it free until then!
Elizabeth Maddrey is a semi-reformed computer geek and homeschooling mother of two who lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace on their way to their own romantic happily ever after.
I am really excited about this project! One Easter tradition I love for our family is that my mother in law always does a fun egg hunt for my kids each year. This makes it so much easier for us to focus on Jesus and not be rushed Easter morning trying to fit in other things before going to church. She always has us over for lunch after church and will do the egg hunt then after we’ve worshiped and spent time together as a family.
Love this! Sharing the tasks always makes things easier all around.
My kids have decided they’re too old for egg hunts and it’s a little sad.
I’m reading my ARC copy of Her Billionaire Benefactor now, and LOVING it!! I honestly can’t think of another book I’ve read set around Easter, though. There might have been one in the Tales of the Grace Chapel Inn, but I’m not sure. Seasons don’t really change in Florida, though we did participate just a little in winter this year, though not as much as we did last year!!
We usually share Easter dinner and an egg hunt with my sister’s family. Years ago, my daughter, daughter-in-law, and niece decided to go with color-coded eggs for the kids. It makes everything so much more fun and less competitive! The bigger ones are always telling the littler ones where they saw their color instead of grabbing more for themselves.
Oh yay! I’m glad you’re enjoying it :)
We usually do an Easter egg hunt with the neighborhood kids after they color them I don’t do it anymore as I’m older but I help the younger kids.we also have church on Easter .I have read a few love inspired books that were around Easter time.
Do you have a special service on Easter? I grew up going to the sunrise service, but our current church doesn’t have that. I sort of miss it.
Spring reminds me of new life. We have a new life through Jesus!!
Yes indeed. It’s a beautiful thing.
Spring reminds me of new beginnings and warmer weather to be outside enjoying God’s creation. Of course, in any season we can have a new beginning through Christ. Thank you, Jesus, for that truth of forgiveness.
There are not a whole lot of Easter stories out there. I am very excited for this project you all are working on.
And, lastly, our tradition is getting together (my 2 kids, a daughter-in-love, and 3 grandkids) to color Easter eggs. We will have snacks and color eggs to our hearts content. I get the Paas coloring kits, something different each year. We put those together with past years tools and let creativity reign.
I can’t wait for these books!
Thank you! I have loved the other two in the project that I’ve read and am looking forward to reading the others.
Yay!
I love the rhythms of the liturgical year, and I always find Lent and then Easter such a special time. I always remember going to church for the Ash Wednesday service the year I was pregnant with my eldest child, it had taken such a long time getting to that point for us and I can remember giving thanks to God with real joy.
I’m really looking forward to this series too, it’s a great project, thanks so much to all you writers involved.
Ironically I feel the same with Spring here when its winter but we don’t have Easter to look forward to.
Here Easter is in Autumn although I am often in denial about the end of summer (I like to claim it doesn’t really end to the equinox). For us Easter often is cooler. Our church doesn’t follow the church seasons either although we do the advent wreath now. We use to hear about Pancake Tuesday but didn’t now it was the day before Lent. Ash Wednesday I didn’t know what it meant either. Back in 1983 we had the Ash Wednesday Bushfires that took many lives in Victoria, the Adelaide hills and in my area to the south and west. We were not in danger but I had friends who were packed to leave 20 mins from where I live. I thought it was Ash Wednesday cos of the ash and fire.
Easter is a long weekend for us Good Friday is the day many will go to a service in the morning. Then the Monday is also a public holiday. I am not sure we have as many traditions (I mean me) At church they normally have hot cross buns on Good Friday. Growing up we use to get our easter eggs on Good Friday. this was our family not others but we never believed in the Easter bunny. The reason for getting them some time on Good Friday was so we were not distracted by the easter eggs on Easter sunday and wouldn’t associate the eggs with the importance of Jesus Rising again. I would hide my brothers and he would hide mine. he is 4 years older so one year i knew he always found them so I hid it under his pillow. he was so frustrated he couldn’t find it he sat on his bed and almost on the pillow and thats how her found it. I figured putting it there he would see it straight away. Best hiding place ever.
The only books I really remember are by Janet Tronstad I think it was A Dry Creek Easter and I know the cover had lilacs on it.
Oh I can imagine how meaningful that Ash Wednesday was. <3
This is such a great comment. Thank you for sharing all of this!
My kids have never done the Easter bunny either, much to the annoyance of my mother in law. Ah well. She also got annoyed that we didn’t push Santa.
Thank you for sharing. I love Spring when everything becomes new. It reminds me of the new life we have in Jesus after His resurrection. God bless you.
Yes!
sounds interesting
I love your books and this one sounds so good!