So, It's Easter... (Part 1)

It’s Easter season. I don’t know what Easter means to you - maybe it’s happy memories of egg hunts in your yard, or a stiff new outfit your mom forced you to wear to church, or those horrible bangs where your mom DEFINITELY singed your forehead and then acted like it was no big deal. Maybe your family was ultra religious, or maybe not. I don’t know if you know Jesus, or if you and Jesus are even on speaking terms. Is God that old guy in the sky, with a snow white beard? Is He a distant stranger? Did Jesus’s life even really matter - was He even real? Let’s not even get started on the Holy Spirit, for so many, the spookiest member of the trinity. If Jesus was only a story book character, He surely wasn’t a very good one. He spent 33 years on this broken planet, and 95% of those 33 years are still a mystery to us. What started off with a bang (virgin birth - yes, really, super virgin, not just “young girl”), moved along pretty quietly until Jesus started hanging out at weddings and turning water into wine. Can you imagine? Savior of the universe, hanging out with his mom at a wedding - she disappears for a few minutes, then shows back up and says “Son, listen, these people have run out of wine…” If I’m Jesus, I’m looking at her and telling her to trot up to the Bethle-Costco for a fresh box. Instead, He quietly went and turned barrels of water into fresh wine, so good that a guest said, “Why would you save the best wine until last?” That’s Jesus - Savior of the world, but He cares about the refreshments at your wedding. This was his first recorded miracle. Over the next three years, He brought on twelve disciples - fishermen, tax collectors, sinners. Maybe today they would have been miners, garbagemen, drug dealers… He healed the sick, He fed the hungry. He moved among a broken world and grieved for the sin that broke us. He didn’t just take pity on our situation, He did something about it. My hope is that over the next few days that you would begin to see Jesus in a new light, that His story would be new to you. He was full of radical, crazy love that culminated in the cross. He still is full of that very same love. There’s plenty to go around. If you have questions, let’s talk. Happy Easter, y’all. Reflection Questions; What is your current view on Jesus? Would you let Jesus be your wedding date? Would you let him turn water into wine for you? Meaning, do you trust him to perform a miracle in your life? What is an area in your life where miracles need to take place?