This is the morning of celebration for Christians across our earth. This is the day that many will get up to greet the morning and sing songs of victory and joy. It is in believing in Jesus Christ that we come to view our lives as just an eye blink in eternity. We are here such a short time, but because of our faith in Jesus, we know that we will be blessed with eternal life. I am humbled by this gift by our Lord.
It is more than eternal life that we have faith. We are also told we will become a new creation. What does that mean? For me, it means that my broken harden heart was transformed by love. There were a lot of failures and backslides, but when I glance back over my life I find that there was a constant weaving of people and events who brought me closer to a new creation.
Jesus talked about love to the people who knew him face to face. He told them stories about what love actually is. It was the Samaritan who aided a man he did not know. It was a father whose son returned having lost all his inheritance. It was the shepherd who went looking for that one lost sheep. Paul would later in the first letter to the Corinthians define the qualities of love. He would say, "Love is patient and Love is kind." Both of these characteristics of love mean we have to step beyond ourselves. Just as in Jesus's stories, the Samaritan did not gain anything for himself, for the man on the side of the road was not his problem. The father, who welcomed his wayward son, had within his rights to turn his son away, but instead he celebrated his return. The shepherd had ninety-nine sheep. The loss of one would not be as much as losing an entire herd, but to the shepherd that sheep mattered as much as if it was the only one he had. Each of these people stepped outside themselves to think of another, but it was also thinking the broken, the wayward and the lost.
What does that mean? It means that our love should go towards those who are not easy to love. The ones that will give us more trouble than it is worth or so it seems. Jesus once said that it is easy to love those we know... our family and our friends, but we are to love those we do not know. We are called to be kind and patient.
I wrote this past Lent season on Kindness. I did not do a very good job in that I was not faithful to write about it every day. When I wrote about it, I did it mainly for myself, and then placed it on facebook. I found myself each day looking for kind acts or evaluating my behavior to see if I was practicing what I preached. I found myself being helped by strangers in little ways like the gentleman who took my buggy to the place to park it. He had no idea how very tired I was that day. I thanked him and I thanked God for sending him into my path that day. I heard wonderful stories of kindness others have been blessed with along the way also. I hope that I will keep this awareness going for the rest of my days. I am hoping that these few weeks of watching how I behave will make me in the future to be a kinder person. Maybe next year, I will tackle patience something I need practice in doing. As many who have prayed for patience have learned the only way to be more patient is to deal with situations and people who frustrate you in many ways. I will have to pray over that one.
Jesus came down to us because God loved us. The Bible speaks of that love. Jesus came to us as a gift of love to humanity. His resurrection is a gift of love to all of humanity. This is a humbling gift. We did not deserve this gift of love. This gift of Kindness is to all humanity. We celebrate that love today. We celebrate that love by remembering the gift that he gave us when he defeated death.
HE IS RISEN!!!
HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!
It is more than eternal life that we have faith. We are also told we will become a new creation. What does that mean? For me, it means that my broken harden heart was transformed by love. There were a lot of failures and backslides, but when I glance back over my life I find that there was a constant weaving of people and events who brought me closer to a new creation.
Jesus talked about love to the people who knew him face to face. He told them stories about what love actually is. It was the Samaritan who aided a man he did not know. It was a father whose son returned having lost all his inheritance. It was the shepherd who went looking for that one lost sheep. Paul would later in the first letter to the Corinthians define the qualities of love. He would say, "Love is patient and Love is kind." Both of these characteristics of love mean we have to step beyond ourselves. Just as in Jesus's stories, the Samaritan did not gain anything for himself, for the man on the side of the road was not his problem. The father, who welcomed his wayward son, had within his rights to turn his son away, but instead he celebrated his return. The shepherd had ninety-nine sheep. The loss of one would not be as much as losing an entire herd, but to the shepherd that sheep mattered as much as if it was the only one he had. Each of these people stepped outside themselves to think of another, but it was also thinking the broken, the wayward and the lost.
What does that mean? It means that our love should go towards those who are not easy to love. The ones that will give us more trouble than it is worth or so it seems. Jesus once said that it is easy to love those we know... our family and our friends, but we are to love those we do not know. We are called to be kind and patient.
I wrote this past Lent season on Kindness. I did not do a very good job in that I was not faithful to write about it every day. When I wrote about it, I did it mainly for myself, and then placed it on facebook. I found myself each day looking for kind acts or evaluating my behavior to see if I was practicing what I preached. I found myself being helped by strangers in little ways like the gentleman who took my buggy to the place to park it. He had no idea how very tired I was that day. I thanked him and I thanked God for sending him into my path that day. I heard wonderful stories of kindness others have been blessed with along the way also. I hope that I will keep this awareness going for the rest of my days. I am hoping that these few weeks of watching how I behave will make me in the future to be a kinder person. Maybe next year, I will tackle patience something I need practice in doing. As many who have prayed for patience have learned the only way to be more patient is to deal with situations and people who frustrate you in many ways. I will have to pray over that one.
Jesus came down to us because God loved us. The Bible speaks of that love. Jesus came to us as a gift of love to humanity. His resurrection is a gift of love to all of humanity. This is a humbling gift. We did not deserve this gift of love. This gift of Kindness is to all humanity. We celebrate that love today. We celebrate that love by remembering the gift that he gave us when he defeated death.
HE IS RISEN!!!
HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!