| Sunny Side Up April12, 2006 �2006, Kathleen Gibson Easter in the simplest terms As a baby, my parents took me to church one day and gave me back to God. He said they could keep me if they promised to raise me right and teach me truth. They did. The Ten Commandments were more respected in society a half-century ago. Parents, Sunday School teachers, preachers, even schoolteachers taught their importance. I didn't worship idols or rob banks, and I can't recall committing murder, not once. But I learned that according to the Bible, committing even one of the 'smaller offenses' like disobeying my parents, or telling a selfish lie to stay out of trouble, was sin. It broke God's heart, created a galactic gap between us. But my childhood teachers taught a little history too. In ancient times, in Hebrew culture, two parties often sealed an unbreakable pact with a sacrifice of some sort, frequently a blood sacrifice. People have been sinning since Adam and Eve. God has hated it since Adam and Eve. It mucks up his plan for our best-being. So in terms they could understand, he arranged a way for his beloved people to make peace with him; to start over with a clean slate. If they took a valuable possession, often a lamb, to the temple for the priests - representing himself - to sacrifice, he promised he'd forgive them. In many Eastern countries still, sheep are vital to survival. Each lamb means a child will have milk, someone will be clothed, another meal can be served. In that time and place, and among those people, every sin committed meant another lamb removed from a family's wealth, however meager, and brought to the temple for sacrifice. Centuries later, while still a child, I realized that my disobedience of even one of those 'Big Ten' also required some sort of making up. But I had no lamb. Then my teachers taught me the greatest Bible story of all. Centuries before, God had peered down the ages, seen every sin I - and you - would ever commit, and provided a lamb to pay our debt. His own son, Jesus Christ, sacrificed on a cross-shaped altar strung between earth and heaven. It was finished - the last blood sacrifice God would ever require. That's what happened on Good Friday, and that's why it's good - but here's the best part: Three days later Jesus breathed in Life, and rose to remain the open door between us and God. Easter! When my childish soul determined to make its peace with God, I didn't need to bring a lamb to sacrifice at the altar of my little church - God had already provided one. I made my decision young: to walk through the Door, to accept God's outstretched hand, to refuse to do things - however innocuous - that oppose his Holy nature. To ask him to become the Director of my life. And he said, Child, I've been waiting to hear that for two thousand years. I renew that choice daily. His offer has never expired, and it extends to you. Respond Home |
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