Thoughts on Easter

Christmas and Advent have always been special to me.  Since I was little I've been quick to don the Christmas spirit and all it's anticipation.  This has become one of our family traditions; a way of watching and waiting for Christ's arrival together.

Last Easter honestly slipped by, as we celebrated it in the fog of a 2 week old baby, in a different country, pretty worn out on guest house living!

Hard to believe this 2 week old has grown so much!

Not that life's fog has passed.  In many ways the fog remains, it's just a different sort of fog; not so hormonally charged as those early postpartum days.  My heart was impressed upon to really take note of Easter this year.  To as a family, in these days leading up to Easter, together lean into Jesus and the message of the cross. 

 
So it's started with doing this devotional together. 

And as I was stringing the photos, to hang on our tree, I began to wonder "What will our Auntie think?"  She is in our home everyday; interacts closer with us than many.  I've already experienced the disapproval as the 3 bearded 5x/daily praying men printed the pictures off at the post office.  The very graphic photos flashed up on their screen and there was no denying who it was, or what I believe.  They had printed them, but very be-grudgingly.  And now they'll hang in our kitchen until Easter.  And Auntie will likely be offended. 

The reality dawns on me: the essence of Easter is offensive.  You can't celebrate Christ crucified and risen without acknowledging your own sin that put him there! 

Re-read some of Noel Piper's "Treasuring God in our Traditions" and my heart musings were confirmed: "Although Easter is the highest celebration of the Christian year, it doesn't have the fascination and thrill that surrounds Christmas.  There's a reason: The death of Jesus was a very somber and tragic event, and we had a part in causing it . . . Easter's Resurrection could happen only after the Crucifixion, and the cross is like a crossroads in our lives.  Every one of us must stand at that crux, that point requiring resolution, and must choose which way to go (pg. 92)."

Last week I hurt a friend.  The majority of the offense wasn't intentional.  But the truth is I'm selfish and often think first of myself.  I can choose to do what I know, what is comfortable and fail to see the needs, gifts and input of those He has placed around me.  I am awakened anew to the reality of my desperate need of the Cross.  The sting is real.  My sinful man is offended. My renewed self is grieved by the impacts of my sinfulness.  But in the same, I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for the Cross.   

I'm working to memorize the Sermon on the Mount and as I chew on it, I am reading an excerpt from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "The Cost of Discipleship."  The salt and the light . . . we don't choose to be salt or light.  We don't have salt, don't become light.  We are the salt of the earth, whether we like it or not.  For we have been made salt by the call we have received as followers of Jesus.  In the light of the cross, the visibility of God's great redemption of all mankind, the good works He has created in us are seen.  All these good works are a bearing of the cross of Jesus Christ.  "Jesus does not say that men will see God; they will see the good works and glorify God for them.  The cross and the works of the cross, all the blessed in the beatitudes, these are the things which will become visible . . . It is by seeing the cross and the community beneath it that men come to believe in God.  But that is the light of the Resurrection."

And now on the ipod we have an Easter playlist; seeking to keep the fullness of the Gospel and God's redeeming work on the Cross current in our hearts and minds :

   "Christ is Risen" Jeremy Riddle

"By His Wounds" Glory Revealed

"Hallelujah, What a Savior" Shelly Moore Band

"Oh the Deep, Deep Love" Soverign Grace Ministries

Elias' favorite "Nothing But the Blood" Passion

"I am Redeemer" Jeremy Riddle

among others are playing constant filling the kitchen, my heart and mind with thoughts centered on His saving work for me; for those dearest to me; for those I live among.