Happy Easter, Friends! It seemed like a good day to wear a sequined formal dress. Because why not? I mean, in all seriousness, is it ever a bad day to wear sparkly things? The answer to that is no, friends. No.
And on this holiday weekend, I discovered true love…
True love, friends, is when a 3 year old comes and finds you to share one of his fruit snacks with you. I’ll just be over here in a puddle of girl emotion and tears, thank you. Ser. i. ous. ly. I can’t even handle the cuteness that this is.
And while I recover, how about a little fun… We are going to call this an Adult Easter Egg Hunt.
AN ADULT EASTER EGG HUNT
You are going to need to go to YouTube and check out the White House channel for this one. Here’s a link to make it super easy for you.
Start going through the videos and take a look at the likes on each video versus the dislikes.
Some of you will totally laugh at this. Some of you will be super annoyed.
Whether it’s a dislike campaign or... you know… just popular opinion... I can’t help but laugh at the passive aggressiveness that is happening here. It feels like there's a lot we don’t have control over in life these days…. And apparently hitting that dislike button helps. I mean, passive aggressive t-shirts help too... Just sayin'.
I read a few news articles this week that say YouTube is testing a new platform that removes public disclosure of the number of dislikes on the dislike button. I mean I don’t want to assume anything but I do find that rather…. Interesting. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on all of that.
Now for that Easter Egg Hunt...
In all the White House videos there is one… one.. that has more likes than dislikes. About 20K more likes. (Disclaimer: I believe there is now one other video that has more likes than dislikes… by like 10. I could be wrong. It doesn't happen very often, buuuuut it always a possibility. I'm kidding. I'm wrong plenty. I promise. )
Anyway…this one video that has way more likes than dislikes... I’ll make it easy on you and give you a clue... It’s somewhere between February 11 and February 12. See if you can find which one it is.
I have my own thoughts and opinions for sure. I do love a good conspiracy theory. But you’re on your own for whatever you want to think or not think about this one.
But before you go have some fun with that, let’s talk about Easter...
EASTER Sunday Thoughts
He is Risen. It’s the words you see everywhere on Easter Sunday. We celebrate that Christ rose from the dead. That he was resurrected. That the tomb was empty.
But why?
I mean there is the whole being dead and coming back to life thing. I feel like that’s kind of a big deal. It’s got a little zombie apocalypse feel to it for sure. Or maybe vampire depending on what genre you prefer. I think I’ll just go with historical.
It was a miracle, obviously. But besides the whole miraculous aspect of it, why was it a big deal?
Simply put: A dead Savior isn’t a savior.
We celebrate Easter because Jesus is who he said he was, he did what he said he would do, and we can be made right with God because of him. Without his resurrection, there wouldn’t be much hope. I’ll just let 1 Corinthians 15 sum this one up for you:
14 And if Christ has not been raised, what we preach doesn’t mean anything. Your faith doesn’t mean anything either. 15 More than that, we would be lying about God. We are witnesses that God raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if the dead are not raised. 16 If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith doesn’t mean anything. Your sins have not been forgiven… 19 Do we have hope in Christ only for this life? Then people should pity us more than anyone else. 20 But Christ really has been raised from the dead. He is the first of all those who will rise from the dead. 21 Death came because of what a man did. Rising from the dead also comes because of what a man did. 22 Because of Adam, all people die. So because of Christ, all will be made alive. 23 Christ is the first of those who rise from the dead. When he comes back, those who belong to him will be raised.
Knowing all that though… There’s one thing I can’t get out of my head the last two days.
At our Good Friday service on Friday, we read Mark’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion and death in Mark 15. As I pulled open my Bible and read through it, I couldn’t make it past one phrase…
Right before he died, Jesus said… "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34)
I’ve heard and read the account of Jesus’ death hundreds of times over the years. And this time I couldn’t get past this line.
Maybe it’s because in my struggle over the last 6 months I have often found myself questioning if God had indeed forgotten me... forsaken me… abandoned me... deserted me. Maybe it’s because as I have read through the Bible, over and over again I have jotted down note after note after note that says... You will not forsake me. You have not forgotten me. You will not leave me.
They are truths that I have tried soooo hard to hold tight to when everything else was falling apart. And then I read those words on Friday….
My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
And I realized that God did indeed forsake his son. HIS OWN SON. He deserted him. He abandoned him right here on the cross. He left him.
And yet, do you know what God promises us over and over again in Scripture? He PROMISES that he will NEVER leave us or forsake us.
In Deuteronomy 31:6, Moses tells Joshua... Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.
God tells Joshua in Joshua 1;5... No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses so will I be with you; I will never leave you or forsake you.
Solomon tells his people in 1 Kings 8:57... May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers; may He never leave us or forsake us.
David tells us over and over again in the Psalms:
For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. (Psalm 37:28)
For the Lord will not reject his people… I will not forsake them.( Psalm 94:14)
And Hebrews 13:5 Paul reminds believers today to be content because God has said, “I will never leave you , never will I forsake you.
That is a promise, Friends.
And in that promise I’m reminded of Numbers 23:19, God isn’t a mere human, He can’t lie, He isn’t a human being, He doesn’t change his mind. He speaks and then he acts. He makes a promise and then he keeps it.
Never will I leave you or forsake you… that’s a promise. A promise from someone who never breaks a promise, who never tells a lie, who speaks and then acts.
He abandoned his own son on the cross so that the cost of our sins could be paid for. So that for those who believe in him… he will never forsake or abandon or desert them. He was willing to forsake his own son so that he would never have to forsake us. I CAN'T EVEN WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THAT. Mainly because I can’t even imagine giving up or abandoning my own child for anyone, let alone for people who may or may not care about what it cost me.
And yet, God did that for us.
It’s a love that is unfathomable to me.
But also... walked out to this thing creepin' on me yesterday. One lone chicken creeping around the corner. I think it might be possessed.
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