Easter

Have you ever truly thought about Easter? It's one thing to know the facts: Jesus came to earth (which we celebrate at Christmas), He lived a perfect life, was killed (brutally), and rose from the dead. But have you ever really thought through the details and ultimately the reason he did it?

Honestly, it's not something I think about too often. Yes, I know the facts and I think about those fairly regularly. But I sometimes avoid the deeper thinking. I try not to let my heart get too involved in my thoughts of Jesus. Because I know that if I do, I'll start crying.

Not crying because He went through so much brutality and torture and then death; crying because of why He chose to go through it. It's because of me. And you.

There are so many different directions I could go with this post, because there are so many different pieces of His life, His sovereignty, His power, His grace, His mercy, etc. etc. etc. that tie into His decision to go through all that He did for us.

But ultimately, it all loops back and points to His love for us.

It would be one thing for some random guy to go through something like that for one other person. Okay, we might think they were crazy, but it could be something we could rationalize away, like, "Oh, he must have really loved her." But if this were the case, this random guy wouldn't have rose from the dead, and ultimately, the person he sacrificed himself for would die eventually too.

But Jesus wasn't some random guy. He was (and still is) God. And He didn't just die for one person, He died for all people. Then He rose from the dead. Why? Because it was the only way that we could avoid what we deserve: eternity in Hell, separated from God. Jesus took on our sins (which are the reason we deserve to be separated from God) and became the ultimate atonement, so we don't have to be separated from Him. Why? Because He wants to be with us. He wants us to choose to spend time (on earth as well as eternity) with Him. And yes, we have a choice (which also ties back to His love for us).

All of this is incredibly overwhelming and I'm not even close to hitting on all of the details. Let's break this down a bit:

1. Jesus was and still is God.
2. He died for all people.
3. He rose from the dead.
4. He did this so we can escape Hell and eternal separation from Him.
5. He took on our sins and thus acquitted us of our guilt.
6. He wants to be with us and spend time with us.
7. He wants us to choose Him.

Really let yourself think about any of these things, and you can see why I get so emotionally overwhelmed. And thinking about each of these things leads to more details of God's love and goodness.

Some little blog post could never even come close to showing the extravagance of God's love. It's too big for us to consolidate (and why would we want to?). So maybe take some time to really think about one of the many aspects of Jesus and see what He shows you. He does want to spend time with us, after all. Why not right now?