The past two months of my life have been extremely agonizing as my mom is in the final stages of life and my boss is in hospice care. We are about to face some enormously challenging decisions regarding the care of my mother while continuing to process the heartache of the inevitable. There are times I am suddenly overwhelmed with emotion and find the tears flowing freely early in the morning, at night and a few times while at home, work or church. In moving through this difficult process I find the grace of God is extraordinarily abundant as my family and my church have brought great comfort and support during this time of life.
My life is filled with both immense sorrow and bountiful joy which seem to be present simultaneously and this dichotomy can be emotionally confusing. I began to ponder this oddity as I read the Easter story in Luke this morning. The verse “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” seemed to jump out at me. I began to consider the implications of this verse and I thought about my dad who passed away almost 27 years ago. Why do I not feel compelled to visit his graveside? I thought about listening to his affirmation of faith while at his bedside in the hospital and observed the joy he experienced while conversing with God. I remember him entering into a peace that passes all understanding and that is when I recognized that I relate to the graveside as the place of the dead. I began to realize it is because my dad is not there; he is among the great cloud of witnesses cheering us on and is with God in heaven at this very minute.
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and marked the beginning of the week that leads us to the greatest Christian family celebration of the year, Resurrection Sunday. It escorts us into the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ who sacrificed his life that we might be restored to intimate relationship with God. We’ve fasted, prayed and prepared our hearts to spend this day with church family and friends in reverence and honor of our Lord Jesus the Messiah who purchased our salvation by dying for us.
“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends since I told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask using my name. This is my command: love each other.” John 15:13-17 (NLT)
My prayer is that we would stand together in awe of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ and ask him to present us with opportunity to share his love with those we come in contact with. As we walk through this week with Jesus ask him how we can abide in him and him in us that we might bring great glory to the Father for sending his precious son for us. He also says in John 15 that the Holy Spirit who lives in us will testify all about him and we must also testify about him. Let us ask him for opportunities to allow this honor to be bestowed upon us not only this week but throughout this coming church season.
He is risen! Hallelujah! Happy Easter!
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