Easter in My Heart: Uplifting Stories of Redemption and Hope [Hardcover]

Joe Wheeler (Compiler)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2000

What's better than chocolate bunnies, fuzzy chicks, and colored eggs?

Having Easter in your heart.

In relation to its significance to the Christian faith, Easter is perhaps the most under-celebrated holiday of the year. Yet this momentous day has the potential not only to delight your family--but to transform it. Beyond the spun-sugar eggs, beyond the brightly colored baskets overflowing with plastic green grass and tasty treats, lies history's most earth-shattering and revolutionary event. An event that once ushered in a new way of life, and could very well do so for your family again--

This year, honor the true meaning of Easter--and the new beginnings associated with this vital holiday--through the spiritually enriching, family-affirming stories found in Easter in My Heart.


Easter for Your Heart--
New Life for Your Spirit.

For nearly a decade, readers around the world have been exhorted, entertained, amazed, and moved by the heartwarming stories found in Dr. Joe Wheeler's Christmas in My Heart series. Now, Dr. Wheeler--a scholar of what he calls the "Golden Age of Judeo-Christian Stories (1870s-1950s)--has compiled perhaps the greatest, and most moving, collection of Easter stories ever published.

May your spirit be blessed and freshly awakened through this collection of inspirational and nostalgic stories that perfectly captures the spirit of Easter: hope realized, faith fulfilled, and life both gloriously and freely redeemed.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

What's better than chocolate bunnies, fuzzy chicks, and colored eggs?

Having Easter in your heart.

In relation to its significance to the Christian faith, Easter is perhaps the most under-celebrated holiday of the year. Yet this momentous day has the potential not only to delight your family--but to transform it. Beyond the spun-sugar eggs, beyond the brightly colored baskets overflowing with plastic green grass and tasty treats, lies history's most earth-shattering and revolutionary event. An event that once ushered in a new way of life, and could very well do so for your family again--

This year, honor the true meaning of Easter--and the new beginnings associated with this vital holiday--through the spiritually enriching, family-affirming stories found in Easter in My Heart.


Easter for Your Heart--
New Life for Your Spirit.

For nearly a decade, readers around the world have been exhorted, entertained, amazed, and moved by the heartwarming stories found in Dr. Joe Wheeler's Christmas in My Heart series. Now, Dr. Wheeler--a scholar of what he calls the "Golden Age of Judeo-Christian Stories (1870s-1950s)--has compiled perhaps the greatest, and most moving, collection of Easter stories ever published.

May your spirit be blessed and freshly awakened through this collection of inspirational and nostalgic stories that perfectly captures the spirit of Easter: hope realized, faith fulfilled, and life both gloriously and freely redeemed.

About the Author

Joe Wheeler, Ph.D., is considered to be one of the nation's top anthologizers of stories. He is best known for his best-selling Christmas in My Heat series (Gold Medallion Finalist in 1995) and Great Stories Remembered series (awarded Family Television's highest award, "The Seal of Quality" in 1996).

Dr. Wheeler is Professor Emeritus of English at Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, Maryland; Senior Fellow for Cultural Studies at the Center for the New West in Denver, Colorado; and Founder and Executive Director of the Zane Grey's West Society. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in History from Pacific Union College, a Master's degree in English from Sacramento State University, and a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University. He and his wife Connie live in Conifer, Colorado, with Pandora, their Himalayan cat. The Wheelers have two grown children, Greg and Michelle.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press; First edition (March 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578562686
• ISBN-13: 978-1578562688
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 7.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #848,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stories about hope and faith, January 25, 2004

By 

annesailorgirl "annesailorgirl" (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Easter in My Heart: Uplifting Stories of Redemption and Hope (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book, I curled up with it at night and read one story each evening until they were done. All of them were thought-provoking and helped me to re-affirm my faith in life and hope beyond the hard realities of the life we see, especially at Easter. I've never read a collection of Easter stories before, and these were excellent.

There are 13 stories in this collection.

1. What Was in Jeremy's Egg? by Ida Mae Kempel
A story of a 12-yr-old boy in a twisted body who is still in second grade, and yet when the teacher asks all of the students to bring something to class in a large plastic egg that shows new life, Jeremy has the best idea of all.

2. The Arbutus Bonnet, by Margaret E. Sangster, Jr.
Eleanor and Robert became friends during a summer when they were each 16, not realizing then the immense gaps between a poor minister's daughter and the wealthy educated heir to a fortune. Now they are 26, and Eleanor learns that Robert is coming back at Easter to visit the neighboring estate kept by his family. Eleanor longs for a new dress to wear when she meets her old friend, but her father needs the money for an aging parishioner. Will Robert remember his old friend or will he only see her old simple clothes?

3. The Maid of Emmaus, by Agnes Sligh Turnbull
Martha, a young new follower of Jesus, had a hard week at the Emmaus inn. She longed to give Jesus a gift, and thought she could make him some little loaves. Then He died, and her hopes were dashed. Or were they?

4. The Hidden Treasure, by Arthur Gordon
The old Scotsman and the young traveller share an Easter Morning together at sea, and the old Scotsman tells a story of Easter treasure.

5. An Easter Song, by Grace Ethelyn Cody
"Gretta just didn't see how she could possibly sing for the Easter service, as her father had asked her. Not this Easter, so soon after Mother's passing. But in her haze of anguish and self-pity, she had forgotten she was not alone in all this, that there were others; for instance, old Mrs. Meredith, now blind. And what about poor Father?" (p. 71)

6. Mrs. Pepper Passes, by Helen Ward Banks
Mrs. Pepper had very little money, but she had an open loving heart, and so she set out to enjoy Easter even though she felt she could give nothing to the people she cared for. Or could she? This is a charming story of how we can give without knowing it.

7. Only a Piece of Glass, by author unknown
It was just a tiny piece of glass, lost in the shop of the artist, designing beautiful church windows. Would the Master artist find it? And if so, what would it be used for?

8. Polly's Easter Service, by Elizabeth Price
Polly was not the most pleasant person to be around and people avoided her. Then her lovely Sunday School teacher gave everyone in the class something ugly that looked like a potato, and her life was changed.

9. The Gift, by Margaret Prescott Montague
Rev. Thomas McCord had lost everything he valued in life -- including his beloved son overseas at war, and then his faith in God. He did not know how he could preach his Easter sermon in his grief. Then a visitor arrives at his door.

10. Pieces of Silver, by Clarence Budington Kelland
Carnavon was a skilled and powerful orator, and used his skills to disprove Christianity and turn people into skeptics. Then he had a visitor -- an elderly Christian from the salvation Army, who gently and lovingly compared him to Saul of Tarsus and asked him probing questions. Another visitor brought him an ancient coin of Simon the high priest. While holding this coin and remembering the elderly Christian's words, he is transported to the crucifixion, and the story of one who sold Jesus for 30 of these silver coins.

11. Lilies for Inspiration, by Mabel McKee
Emily, an office girl at the orchestra, longs for a new jade hat for Easter. But the elderly violinist has told her that he works best when looking at something beautiful, like lillies, which his fans used to send him by the dozens. Emily knows he no longer receives lillies, but she is poor, and must make a choice.

12. A Glimpse of Heaven, by Harriet Lummis Smith
Why did young wealthy Claude Rockwell commit suicide on the eve of Easter? Why was he in such despair, when young poor Mark, blind from birth, manages to be happy?

13. The Hollow Man, by Joseph Leininger Wheeler
This story opens with a poem:
"Oh he was handsome, beautiful as a Greek god,
But he was empty: a hollow boom-booming drum;
Oh he could speak, could sway multitudes,
But inside, where his heart should have been,
There was only sawdust, straw,
And swirling, mocking winds."
This is a haunting story of a young man who has it all -- but still finds life empty, and how he finds what he lacks.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I have.

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book!, January 16, 2012

By 

Carol M. Leake (New Bern, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Easter in My Heart: Uplifting Stories of Redemption and Hope (Hardcover)

I love the books by Joe Wheeler, Christmas in My Heart series; this book, Easter in My Heart, is an inspiration as well! Wonderful books to read yourself and with family.