april fools ... a lot deeper than you might think ... really!

I've always kind of wondered about the origins of April Fool's Day, and was inspired by what I discovered on allrecipes.com:

Most historians agree that April Fools' Day began when the Christian world adopted the new Gregorian calendar. According to the old calendar, the New Year was celebrated in the spring for eight days (the final day of celebration being April First), but because the new calendar was so different, the date of the New Year was changed to January First.

Many of the people who lived in the countryside didn't know of the change for years, and continued celebrating the New Year during the spring. Those "in the know" thought this was hilarious and started to call the April celebrators "fools." From then on, these people began to go out of their way during this particular season to make friends believe something that was false. And April Fools' Day was born!

Maybe it's just me, but that sounds an awful lot like what Satan likes to do in our lives ... God changed the rules, taking us from a system of law to a system of grace, but Satan tries to keep us in the dark and living under the law ... how he and his friends must laugh, while they go out of their way to make us continue believing something that is false.

So, celebrate this "holiday" with all the folly you like, but as you revel in the newness that spring brings, don't forget to also celebrate and declare the grace by which we now live. We are only as foolish as the lies that we choose to believe!