He Is Risen.....Just as He Said!!

EAster is a special celebration around here for our family. We enjoy coloring eggs and making lots of creative designs (Friday night), and we love to search for filled eggs in the soggy outdoor grass (Sunday). I love to purchase a beautiful Easter dress for my little girl and some new pants and a shirt for my little guy (did this at the Gap on Friday afternoon). I love to stuff Easter baskets full of little gifts and games and toys and chocolate, and to see my kids enjoy their new goodies.

But, that is not what Easter is about. Not even close. Easter is about the ultimate life and hope. Can you imagine what it was like? To be walking solemnly to Jesus' grave, expecting to be visiting a sealed tomb.....and to find that impossibly heavy stone rolled away......to enter the tomb to see only grave clothes remaining. They must have been very confused. Worried that someone had stolen Jesus' body.......afraid.......deeply saddened. Shocked. And when did the questions start to set in? Could it be......could Jesus.....could He.....?? And then to be among those to whom Jesus appeared......could they believe their eyes? And then, the realization that it was Jesus.....ALIVE! Breathing......speaking......alive again. He had risen, just as He said he would.

Jesus rose from the grave and conquered death. In three short days, He went from the cruelest and most humiliating death on a cross to the cold grave and then......He rose again and, in that moment, sealed sin and Satan's fate forever. In those days, He fulfilled the plan that makes eternal life possible for me and for you and for all who believe in His name. He lived to die......and He died that we might live.......simple as that.

So today is about celebrating. Jesus is alive. He lives not just removed in a faraway place, but He lives inside of me and all who believe in Him. And He calls us BY NAME to himself, that we might also claim victory over sin and death.

Happy Easter! But, even so, this is not the end of the story. For you see, Jesus is Alive and He has planned out an amazing eternity for us with Him in paradise. And that is what we are celebrating today....the story isn't over!!!

So, I hope that you enjoyed all of the eggs and candy and bunnies and baskets and ham dinners.....we sure did! But even more, I hope that hope and gratitude fill your heart, and that you claim personally the truth of Jesus' death, Jesus' resurrection, and an eternity with Jesus!!! That is the never-ending story!!