Easter

I think this is the first Easter I've ever experienced where I didn't go to church. I woke up around 9:45 and spent the morning just sort of chilling in the room for a while. When I looked outside and saw it getting sunny, I decided to grab a book I've been working on ("The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God) and headed down to the Altstadt to enjoy the beautiful day and read.

I sat at an outdoor cafe and drank a cup of coffee and read. I read the chapter called "God The Agless Romancer." Check out this excerpt:

God creates man and woman and sets them in Paradise. How long had he been planning this? ... The first chapter of Ephesians gives a look into God's motives here:

Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son . . . Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had design on us for glorious living. [The Message]

God begins our courtship with a surprise. Taking the blindfold off, he turns us around and reveals his homemade wedding present. "Here," he says. "It's yours. Enjoy yourselfs. Do you like it? Take it for a spin." A lavish gift indeed.



Those paragraphs really spoke to me. Have you ever stepped back and looked at the world and considered the thought that it is for you? That it is a wedding gift made by your Creator for you? That it is an expression of his boundless, eternal love for you? Do you ever look at the sunset and get the feeling that it was made with you in mind? It is, and it's but a mere reflection of God's beauty and power.



I guess this Easter, for me, was less about the ressurection of Christ and more about the motive behind it -- about his gracious love for us, his romancing of us. We are the focus of his love. The God of the whole universe is totally wrapped up in us! All of creation is an expression of his love for us and a reflection of his glory. The crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ are manifestations of that love for you and I. We are so precious to him, so loved by him, that he sent his one and only son to die on a cross so that we could be reconciled with him. From the very first day of mankind's rejection of God in the Garden of Eden, God has been determined to win us back. And he promised that he would.

And on the third day after his crucifixion, Christ, the Son of God, fulfilled the promise of God's love to us when he arose and conquered the power of death, the power of sin. This is why we celebrate Easter -- a celebration of God's victory over death and separation and evil and the rebirth of us anew in him through his Son. We have been crucified with Christ. We die to ourselves and are reborn anew in him.

So today was a reminder of that for me. It was a reminder that when I look out at the world I must remember that it is an expression of his love for me. Most importantly, it is a reminder of just how far he was willing to go to win me back. As you look out at the sunset tonight, think about that. Listen for the voice of God as he takes off the blindfold, turns you around, unveils his gift to you, and whispers to your heart.

"Do you like it?"