Have you ever wondered why eggs and bunnies and baby chicks have come to be such a huge part of Easter? I believe it is because the all represent new life. We celebrate Easter in remembrance of Jesus Christ's victory over the tomb. He held the keys to both death and hell. While victory over hell is due to grace, after all we can do, victory over the grace is a universal gift to all who have ever lived. I am grateful for both.
But as we celebrate Jesus' new life, should we not also celebrate our new life in Jesus? When He said that He is the resurrection and the life, I think he referred to more than just His personal resurrection. He told Martha at the tomb of her brother, Lazarus: Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? (John 11: 23-26)
I am sure that Martha and her sister Mary believed, but I doubt that they fully understood what He meant. I think most of us don't understand because we don't ponder His message in the light of the Spirit.
Jesus taught: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10: 10) I think He means for us to have this abundancy of life while on earth before our death and well as in Glory after our death. I also believe that we can live life abundantly the more closely we follow His example and keep His commandments.
I have always loved the Savior and wanted to keep His commandments, but I have also been a willful child. I would pray as if God were some kind of Celestial Santa Claus. Here is my problem, Lord, and here is how - and when - I want you to solve it for me! How prideful and arrogant I was! God has humbled me throughout my life.
These trials have been hard to bear. I have often felt angry at God, angry that He would place those obstacles in my path. I no longer feel that way. I am glad that the Lord loves me enough to put roadblocks on the wrong paths and to light my way until I find the correct path again - the Covenant Path.
As I approach the twilight of my life, I am more aware of the blessings of tribulation than ever before. Physically, I have aged more in the past five years than I could have imagined. There are so many things that I took for granted that I can no longer do. But even with all of those limitations, I feel that I have life more abundantly today that perhaps ever before.
This will be a very different Easter. So let your children and grandchildren have their eggs and bunnies and chicks. But take the time to help them see these things as symbols of new life, the kind of life they can have only through Jesus Christ. Teach them what the angel taught the women, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen. (Luke 24: 5-6)
© Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson April 2020 - Easter Sunday
No comments:
Post a Comment