My Easter Journey - Part 1

It started when Lindsay was born.  I had only been walking in my faith for what seemed just a few years at that point.  Easter was approaching.  And a desire to know and understand this event burned down deep in my heart.  I wanted to grasp more.  I wanted to know more about Jesus' brutal death on the cross, and his resurrection three days later.  MORE...I wanted MORE!

And the desire remains the same each year, ever since.

I remember one year when I pointed in the mirror, accusing someone of something, and saw that finger pointing back at me, and realizing that all the sin I was consumed in.  And because of Jesus, it is gone and I can have a relationship with my God.  I was overwhelmed.

Some years, I've actually walked the grief some experienced after Good Friday.  And was privileged enough to experience the joy that followed to know my friend was alive.

But this year, I have grasped two new concepts.  I love when God shows me MORE of him!

In the middle of our current Bible study, we talked about how we react when we are at our "ugliest moments", or in our deepest cries.  Do we withdrawal, or press in with our friends?  I was reminded in Matthew how Jesus had his last dinner with his best friends.  And when he went to the garden to pray, he took his friends.  And when he went to pray to his father, he took his BFFs. He allowed them to see his tears, to see his anguish.  (Oh, to be there and see!  Could you imagine?)  And as his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow, he went a bit further and fell on his face and hashed it out with God.  (Matthew 26:17-45)

This got me thinking.  As a mom of three girls (emotional girls, I might add), we have a tendency to pull away.  If my girls see the sin in their lives, they withdrawal.  When my girls are ridiculed in school, they pull away.  And you know what?  There are so many times I do the same.  But God, never created us to be alone!  Not even once!  Even in our worse moments, the crisis that comes our way or the "life" that consumes us, or even the depth of our sin we weren't created to do any of it alone.  We're to have our friends, and even our best-friends...and we have God.  In our deepest fears, deepest needs, deepest desires, and our deepest sorrows we have a God that will wipe away our tears.  God may not change our coarse, but he will carry us through...even the greatest pain in our lives. 

We are never to be alone...we aren't created to.  What load are you carrying?  What anguish do you have?  What hurt?  What sorrow?  You aren't to carry it alone.  Your Heavenly Father, wants to carry your load.  And I'll be your friend, and will pray for you!

 

"for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

Deuteronomy 31:6b