Easter; a time of renewal

This year, March 20th marked the calendar date for a New Season.  Spring is a time of new beginnings; new leaves are emerging from the trees, plants are budding with the anticipation of flowers, and there is the fresh smell of new grass in the air. A warm breeze awakens us to the new season.

On March 31, we celebrated Easter.  We honored Christ, who rose from the grave offering us eternal life and forgiveness of sin.  With His new glorified body, heralding a promise that we can experience a new life in him, we were given a fresh beginning.  Paul reminds us that “. . . if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17).

But even as we celebrate, our hearts are heavy with the realization that much is wrong with our world. Unrelenting hatred seems to rule supreme in the hearts and lives of so many and the fruits of terror are all too evident.  There are diseases for which we have no cures. There are problems in the home. Children are being abused. People are sleeping on the streets.  Our soldiers are dying for unexplainable reasons.  If you watch and listen for very long, you can be filled with despair.  But Jesus said, “I have come to bring you life, and that more abundantly, to show you how to live, to bring you hope and joy and peace and love, to give you a reason for living.”

Let us be transformed this year in our hearts and in our mindset. For when we do we will have awesome and incredibly Godly changes take place in our lives.  Let renewal be a way of life; not a one time or once in a while event. Let us find purpose and direction and meaning in life, in all that we do.

“… put on the new self . . .” (Eph. 4:24).