Did you forget? It’s Easter!

So this weekend is Easter. I doubt that you need to be told. If you’ve been to the supermarket in the last three months you would have seen chocolate eggs lining the shelves. If you’ve read the catalogues on your doorstep,  you would have seen Rabbits littering the pages. Maybe you had to wear rabbit ears to work, or glue baby chickens to a hat for your child’s Easter Hat Parade. You’ve probably got a whole weekend planned and it’s been on your mind for weeks. I really doubt that you need reminding that it’s Easter.

And yet I wouldn’t be surprised if, like me, you need reminding what Easter is all about. In case your vision got clouded with fluffy bunnies, I’ll clear it up. Easter is about Jesus!

It feels weird saying “Happy Easter”. Easter for me does not feel happy. It breaks my heart and makes me cry. I am reminded of how greatly our saviour suffered. I see the wounds that I inflicted upon him with my sinful nature. I remember all those temptations I gave in to, each one marks a lash on his arm. I think of how he was praised on Palm Sunday only one week before as their victorious king and then condemned to death the very same week.

I see an innocent man whose heart was so brimmed with love that he put his own life on the line to save the ones he loved. A man who was love incarnate who preached ‘love your enemies’ and then did it himself saying ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing’ as men bashed nails through his hands and feet.

This man suffered, bled and died, believing that what he was doing would save humanity from eternity in hell. Why would any man inflict that pain on themselves unless it was true that salvation would come by it? Why would his disciples go to the death claiming that they saw him rise from the dead if they really didn’t? Lies are not worth dying for, but the truth is.

At Easter I am reminded of what Christ did for each on of us, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. When he was hanging there, he saw you in his mind and it got him through to the end, knowing his pain would spare you yours.

So as much as it might hurt to think about Jesus, to see him hanging on a cross, to read of his heartache at Gethsemane, please do it. Maybe you feel like it will put a damper over your festive season. It won’t. It will make the joy of Sunday when he rose so much sweeter! You won’t be saying “Happy Easter” you’ll be singing and dancing and blowing kisses and hugging friends and praising God because you’ll finally realise the brilliant gift he offered us when he gave up his life.

So Happy Easter everyone. I pray that you will truly reflect on what Easter really is and you will come to love Jesus so much more.

 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” (John 11:25-27)

 

Envy Unfelt

Some things cannot be unseen. Some feelings cannot be unfelt. Sights can be excused. Feelings can be forgiven. But never forgotten.

News is too readily accessible. It always seems the things we wish we could remember, manage to slip our mind, while tormenting images plague our thoughts.

Jealousy ensnares. Envy tangles us, keeps us captive, subject to our own emotions. It cages us in. Limits us. Hinders us. Destroys us.

I hadn’t felt it in so long, and at just one glance the envy came flooding back, clawing at my soul like a pack of wolves. Who is she? 

His smile. The way his eyes crinkle up. Her there. Me here.

I’m looking at the screen. A moment frozen in time. A golden moment worth a photograph. They seem so happy. Beautiful Christmas lights encapsulate them. Tinsel. Red, white green. Snow. His arm is wrapped around her. She looks so stoked to be in his arms. And I hate her for it. Is that bad? Yes it is bad! I repulse myself. Love. Love. Love is the movement. Love is what we aim for. God is characterised by love, we should seek to emulate him. I am stuck.

But I will escape. I will shed this skin. I will leave these thoughts, these feelings behind. My words take the feelings away. I laden my sentences with the emotions I feel, exerting them, imposing them onto a blank page. Like washing red paint from my hands and then watching it stain the white, porcelain sink.

These feelings will never be forgotten but they can be forgiven. I can move on. I just have to allow myself.

& Remember Philippians 4:8

“Finally, brothers and sisters,

whatever is true,

whatever is noble,

whatever is right,

whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely,

whatever is admirable,

if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,

think about such things.”