"By His wounds, we are healed"

Easter week can be difficult for me at times when I think about the "weight" of the week and its events some 2000 years ago. The more I walk with God....the longer I walk with God, the more significance the week takes on. I feel such a burden for the fact that my sin....my daily sins....my hourly sins...my sins of the minute, have caused the Son of God, in all His Perfection, in all His Holiness, to die a brutal death on the Cross. And no matter how indebted I feel about this act, it won't change the fact that I will continue to sin on this side of heaven....for the rest of my earthly life.

Around this time of year, in casual conversation, we discuss the significance of this week's events with our girls. We talk about the Last Supper and the ways in which Jesus tried to spell out to the disciples what was going to happen to Him....why the evening was so important. We answer their questions about Good Friday, and why something so tragic, so unjust, would be called "good." Then after all the unconscionable darkness of that event, we share in the sheer beauty of the glorious 3rd day and why that day gives us a definite hope and a future.

I was talking with a friend of mine on the phone yesterday. She was sharing with me how introspective the events of this week make her feel as a Christ-follower. I was comforted to hear that, because I was feeling like I was focusing too much on the negative of Easter and not on The Gift I receive because of the death of Christ. She said that she felt it was important to feel "the weight" of this event in our lives as Christians. I think she is right. I liken it to the awareness and appreciation you feel towards your parents, when you realize all they did and sacrificed to help make you the person you are today. And just as your parents don't expect any "payment" in return for what they did, they only desire your love.....I see that as similar to how Christ feels about the sacrifice. I believe His Unending Love would move Him to do it again and again.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.