Image Credit: Chris Hawes/PhotopinCC
Holy Week is a poignant time of reflection.
For Christians, the week preceding Easter Sunday symbolizes tragedy and triumph. The worst and the best.
It’s that bittersweet time when hope transcends sorrow and humanity is brought to its knees in recognition of God’s greatest gift: His son.
We plan family gatherings, meals, and sunrise services. We pray and we fast and we vow to always remember.
This year as the world splinters in a million different directions, I wonder if there’s been a subtle shift in mindset. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that priorities are skewed.
Somewhere between candy-coated feel goods and the more serious world events, the Easter holiday appears sandwiched between political correctness and today’s latest catastrophe. Two extremes, one yardstick.
I’m struck, too, by those who pay the holiday lip service, but their actions reveal differing motivation.
Ahhh…
If only we could pause for a moment and tune out the noise and focus on Who and what matters.
Christ.
The cross.
Hope beyond today.
An eternity without end.
The very One who pushes us past the realm of what’s pretty, safe, or comfortable for the sake of Homeland Security.
An eternal one.
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If you’d like to know more about Christ, the cross, and hope—
I’m taking a blogging break this Friday, but I’ll be back again on Monday.
Happy Easter, everyone—He is risen!
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Do you have a favorite Easter memory?
Any family traditions?
Blessings Always,
Comments 2
I think there’s one other area in which we’re missing the point, and that is the true cost of the Passion.
In the movie, Mel Gibson concentrated on the physical pain, because visually, that’s all he really COULD do. And around this time of year you’ll hear that Jesus endured the worst physical pain anyone has ever gone through.
It’s hard to judge pain, but there are a number of other contenders. White phosphorus is right up there, and some of the items in the Taliban Toolbox, while pretty useless for extracting information, are spectacular as well.
But physical pain is the smaller part of the agony; imagine the guilt you felt over the worst thing you ever did, and magnify it by about a million billion times, and then take it to the exponential power of all the people who have ever lived, and who ever WILL live.
It’s soul-destroying, and it’s what made Jesus feel abandoned on the Cross.
Rising from the dead is…well, not nothing, but it pales in comparison to rising from under the weight of creation’s accumulated sin.
He is risen, and so will we…and He is washed pure, and so can we be, if we’ll only turn to Him, and live with Him.
I hope you and yours have a wonderful Easter, Cindy.
Author
Andrew, thank you–Many blessings to you and Barbara, as well!