Easter. Whoa, wait a minute. Didn't we just have Christmas? Easter falls late this year, but it seems to have crept up on me yet again. We are literally reminded the day after Halloween that Christmas is coming. Commercials, e-mails, flyers, you name it, we are bombarded with the fact that Christmas is coming, but Easter is a quieter holiday. I've always found it ironic that Christmas gets so much more attention than Easter. Sure they are both important Christian holidays and don't get me wrong the birth of Christ was amazing. I mean I get it, we wouldn't have Easter if there hadn't been a "Christmas." But Easter truly is the pivitol holiday for Christians. Seriously, Easter changed the entire course of the world!
When I take the time to think about the intimate details of the Easter story, I'm amazed. I'm talking have to sit down amazed. Christ died for me. Christ died for me? Yes, a statement always followed by a question. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around someone dying for me. There are only a few people I'd lay my life down for, yet Christ did it for the world. Yep, the world. People who loved him, people who hated him. People who followed him, people who ran from him. Even those who nailed him to the cross. Even me. When He was on the cross, I was on His mind.
He was humilated. He was beaten, whipped, tortured. His hands were nailed to a cross and his feet, too. They made him a crown of thorns and they mocked him. And Christ took it all willingly, because when He was on the cross, I was on His mind. He could have, at anytime, called a legion of angels and stopped it all. But on that cross beaten and bruised, I was on the his mind. My sin put him on that cross, but his love for me kept him there.
So this Easter season take some time and think about the story. The intimate, personal story. The one that involves just you and Christ. If you or I had been the only one to die for, he still would have. That's how much he loves us. A line from one of my favorite songs says, "The nails in your hands, the nails in your feet, they tell me how much you love me." That day on the cross, long before you were born, you were on his mind. Today as you think about Easter, let Him be on your mind, too.
