It’s almost Easter! As a child I had been taught that Easter was about the resurrection of Christ from the tomb, but in those early years it was mostly about easter eggs and chocolate. Jelly beans were actually my favorite…especially the green ones. The orange and yellow ones were next best, the red ones were okay, the black ones were always left to the last. We always went to gramma’s house on Easter weekend. Aunt Sara would hide little bags of chocolate eggs and jelly beans all over the yard, and we were tasked with finding them…a clever way of keeping the children occupied for an hour or two so the adults could visit. 

As an adult I still like chocolate and jelly beans, but can’t eat as many as I once did. This old digestive system doesn’t process sugar as well as it used to and things get uncomfortable, so I now exercise restraint. My understanding of Easter and what it all means and represents has changed as well. My understanding of the significance of the death and resurrection of Christ has seriously outpaced my desire for chocolate and jelly beans. The historical event of Jesus rising from the tomb changed everything! It is literally the difference between life and death for humanity…whether you believe it or not. Truth is not determined by what we believe, truth is truth…we either believe it or we don’t.

If you have chosen to believe that Jesus is who he claims to be in the Gospel record, then so doing has most likely radically changed your life. If you do not yet believe, then all you have to hope for in life is what this temporal life has to offer. This is not to suggest that those who choose not to believe have nothing to live for. Many of us choose to live for all sorts of reasons, and every one of us is on a journey through this temporal life that is unique to us. No one has lived the life we live before us, and no one will live a life exactly like ours after us. Each of us were created by God, for a purpose that he will fulfill through the life we live. The choices we freely make, are used by God to fulfill exactly his sovereign plan for the universe. There is no choice we can make that will change the outcome of that sovereign plan. The only thing our choices change is the way we experience the life we have been given to live. We like to think that we have complete control of our lives, but if we really think about it honestly, there is very little we actually control in regard to what happens to us. Most of what we control is in regard to how we react to what has happened to us. Those reactions then dictate how we experience the life God has ordained for us to live. 

When we choose to believe that Jesus is who he claims to be and did what the Bible claims he did, God offers us an incredible gift. Choosing to trust that Jesus death and resurrection justifies us before God, and restores the spiritual  relationship that was lost when we rebelled against him brings peace to our soul. It removes all guilt and fear, and we can then honestly say as Job does in the OT, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last”. When we place our trust in Jesus, and invite the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, it changes everything. It changes the way we see the world, it changes the way we see God, it changes the way we see ourselves. It is difficult to describe, because the experience is different, yet similar for each person. If you have never tried it, what have you got to lose? Why not make 2025 your first truly Happy Easter.