I have been thinking the past few days about Easter and what all of it means to me as a follower of Christ. Growing up in the Church of Christ we have never focused much on the religious holidays because we want to celebrate the birth of Christ and his death and resurrection every Sunday, not just once a year. But I think there is also something special about know that there are millions of Christians around the world celebrating the same thing as me on the same day. So, to try and prepare myself for Easter Sunday I decided to read a few versions of the "Easter Story."

First I read Matthew and I really tried to focus on the words and what it must have been like for everyone involved. When I was finished I did not feel like it impacted me enough. I know people who every time they read the story of the death of Christ they cry. What does it not do that to me? So while I read the story in Mark I tried to think about what it would be like to read and believe this story for the first time. That still did not do much for me because it is hard to forget that I know the story so well, although I did find a few interesting things that I have never read before.
I continued to think about the story of Christ's death and resurrection and how to make it more real to me. The best thing I found was to think of it as if it were happening to me now and instead of Jesus, it was my best friend who sacrificed herself for my life.

How would I have felt seeing her betrayed by one of our other friends? How would I have reacted to her being beaten and mocked? What would I have experienced seeing her hung on a cross in so much pain, knowing that it should be me up there? What would the day after her death be like? Would I cry? Scream? Be angry or depressed? What an awful day!! I probably would have spent time with my family and hers trying to remember the good things about her and grieving. Woah, now that is real.

But the best thought to me would be, what if I went to take care of her body the third day and found her alive? Would I believe it? How would I rejoice? Would I tell others for fear of them thinking I was crazy? I think no matter what happened I would not be able to contain my happiness and I would praise God for a miracle. It would change my life.

But this is not a what if situation. It really did happen. And as hard as it is for me to feel like it is real when I read the Bible (I am much more visual) and even though I might not cry when I hear the story, it is real and it still effects us today. Jesus died on that cross in my place and even more importantly he came back to life. That is something to rejoice and praise God for. I sing praises to God on this Easter Sunday and every day following because Christ rose from the dead and has freed me from that death.

What should knowing this do to my life? Well first, knowing that someone sacrificed their life for me gives my life so much meaning and makes me want to live the best life possible so that their death was not in vain. Second, if someone dies for me it shows their absolute love for my life and I want to understand a love like that. The only way that I know how to understand that, is to get to know God more and to practice that love for other people. I might never love others as much as God loves the world, but I can sure try.