We often think of the Easter season as a time of forgiveness and redemption, and we would be right.
I also like to look at this season as a time of rebirth and regeneration. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we were each given a clean slate, with our lives before Jesus totally wiped clean.
For me, Easter is a reminder to live life to the fullest.
I was going through my notes app, recently, when I stumbled upon an entry from March 2013(over nine years ago), where I had shared some thoughts about the Easter season. It was weird reading my notes from that long ago, but also encouraging to know, even then, I had been thinking along these lines.
I have reproduced the write-up below with some grammatical/exegetical changes.
I pray you’re blessed as you read and ponder these things. Happy Easter!
Easter is about living life to the fullest
Easter is a period that commemorates the death of our Lord, and his burial in the tomb. It is indeed another day of somber reflection and recollection.
I would start by asking certain questions, which are also targeted at me:
What are our preoccupations?
Is it with things of God or the world?
Do we wonder daily how we can assist our fellow brethren and bring more people to God or is it more a question of doing what we want when we want it?
Luke 21:34 elucidates this warning:
“Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware, like a trap. For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.”
Luke 21:34-36 NLT
I know that I have been guilty in these areas.
I can safely say that my current preoccupations are not with the things of God. I have thought about myself more often than I have thought of God. This is quite sad, considering how far he has brought me. But for His grace, I would have truly been lost.
Right now, my prayer is that I don’t take God’s love and mercy for granted but see him as my haven, the one I turn to first when things don’t go as I, in my limited knowledge, have planned.
Even as I write this, I hope whoever reads this feels the need to check themselves and ensure their heart is in the right place.
The precepts of Easter are love and forgiveness, I guess love should come first. I generally feel that forgiveness without love is not truly complete, you are deemed to be forgiving because you think it is the right thing to do or there are consequences to your not ” forgiving”.
But then again, do we love because we are told to love or because we are loved?
There is no doubt that every human being has the ability to love. I believe it is actually one of the first emotions a baby has.
During those first few months and years, he gets to bond with his parents, where he trusts them absolutely, wants to be around them, and wants to be and remain the apple of their eyes. This may be viewed as selfish, which is probably the case, but it does not erase the fact that as humans, we are love.
Understanding God’s redemptive love this Easter
I believe God came to teach us a deeper kind of love.
Not one based on what a person can do for us or who they are to us, but one of an everlasting allegiance to a person because he is a part of the kingdom of God.
More so, God’s love is infused with the freedom we cannot get anywhere else. Freedom to be who he had called us to be notwithstanding what the world or others expect.
I believe it is his love – a love that laid down everything for mankind – that allows us to live a full life.
Christ, himself confirms this in John 10:10
“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”
John 10:10 NLT
So, how are you choosing to celebrate this Easter? What would you be doing differently after this season has come and gone?
I pray you make the most of this reminder to live full and free in the knowledge of God’s love and redemptive power. Amen
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