With Easter being a few days ago, I hope these words find you in the beautiful afterglow of realization that what was meant to kill, steal, and destroy was overwhelmed by pure, divine, holy love. That love that was made evident through submission and sacrifice. For me. For you.
It may feel like Easter is in the rearview mirror, but let’s hang out here a few more moments because if you’re like me you were busy with the traditions and didn’t have time to ponder the true meaning behind it all. Let’s enjoy an intimate exchange with Jesus. Let’s be purposeful to put the eyes of our heart on Christ with a specific focus. Two songs, Noel by Lauren Daigle and Closer Than You Know by Hillsong can help us reflect.
Let’s start by using the Christmas carol, Noel. Yes, I just said Christmas. Bear with me, after all, we can’t have Easter without Christmas.
The tenderness of Christmas is found in the precious Baby who was born, the miracles that surrounded His birth, and the promise that He would rule and reign making everything right.
It’s such a comfortable place to be as I envision the event as being warm and cozy, precious in every way. But if you’ve ever been in a barn you know there’s manure, flies, and definitely no climate control.
How easy it is to miss the sacredness of receiving the Light of the World while doing everyday life! How often do we overlook His perfection within the setting of a normal day and the imperfection of our lives? I have manger moments every day when God’s love shows up and I miss it because I’m too task oriented and distracted by the smell and the uncomfortable climate.
Come and see what God has done! A baby given to us whose birth split the way time is recorded. A tiny, defenseless baby who is the divine, incarnate Savior of the World. The birth of Christ was a continuum of God’s love story for us. We have extravagantly benefited from the deep commitment and unfailing love between the Father and Son.
Our Savior had arrived and was laid in a wooden feedbox with the eyes of His heart set on a wooden tree. We can’t stare at the wooden cradle of Christmas without looking at the wooden cross this baby would eventually hang from to fulfill the purpose for which He was made flesh. For me. For you.
But we can’t stop here. Let’s bridge Christmas and Easter as we move from His birth to His death and from there to His purpose.
His own people lied about Him, spit on Him, sold Him out for a few pieces of silver. When given the opportunity to grant Him freedom, they chose a thief to be released instead. No one stood up for Him. He was utterly despised, and yet He stayed the course. For me. For you.
I’ll confess there’s somewhat of a disconnect between Christmas and Easter. I’m more comfortable focusing on the birth, new life, and the freedom I get to have along with the promise of life eternal with God in Heaven. It’s easier than focusing on the knowledge that He was beaten beyond recognition, blindfolded, and His beard plucked out. Though He was jeered at, mocked with His blood running from the crown of thrones they put on Him to wear as a joke, He stayed the course. For me. For you.
I’ve had welts on my legs many times from a belt, but to have metal stakes nailed through your flesh, tearing through tendons and breaking bones … I’m not able to process that in my mind. I can’t imagine not being able to stand up to get air into your lungs, slowly suffocating, and a spear impaled into your side. But He stayed the course. For me. For you.
I thought having to get my own switch added torture to the beating I knew I was about to get from my mom. But being forced to carry the wooden beam where you would take your last breath is unfathomable to me. Jesus breathed His last breath on a wooden cross, hanging naked with a sign above His head as a sarcastic gesture, while His meager possessions were being divided among the soldiers. And yet He stayed the course. For me. For you.
Jesus Christ is God’s Son and yet human in every way. Rather than play the sovereign card and bail on enduring the cross, which was an option for Him, He chose to submit Himself to the Father. He willingly offered Himself as the spotless Lamb and satisfied the wrath of His Father that was against me and you. He endured the separation from His beloved Father until He was redeemed by Him. Christ chose complete and total submission to His Father because of His perfect love for His creation. You and me.
Listen to Noel by Lauran Daigle as she sings about the incarnate, divine love, the Light of the world given for us. After you bask in the beauty of Christ’s birth, put the eyes of your heart on where this precious baby was headed. Then transition to the song, Closer Than You Know by Hillsong and wash yourself in the purpose of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection and what it affords us—His affection for us, His endurance in pursuing us, and His extravagant grace and mercy for us.
Here is one of the verses from Closer Than You Know:
I carried that cross
And I felt your pain
I took up your crown
And I wore your shame
And death was a fire
And its teeth were grim
But I left it behind
Along with all your sin
May the combination of these two songs wreck you like they do me every time I listen to them. May it soak deep into the marrow of your bones where God designed you with a specific DNA that gives you a unique beauty of being made in His likeness. It is so, it is true, and it pleases God that He has made no one like you. You are a unique fingerprint of who God is, and He pursues you with the same passion and intimacy He created you with.
Turn your face toward Him. Open your heart to His love. Inhale His presence. Drink in the truths that He has to share with us through His word and through the words of these songs. Sit quietly and soak Him in.
Live Loved and Thrive!
Noel, sung by Lauren Daigle Lyrics: https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/34612529/Lauren+Daigle/Noel, Listen to this song via your favorite music app or watch the music video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vwu-t7QRaE
Closer Than You Know, Hillsong. Lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/hillsongunited/closerthanyouknow.html, Listen to this song via your favorite music app or watch the music video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0um5XZBpS1Y
Self-reflection
These questions are in no way a substitute for healthcare professionals or any level of professional counseling. I’m an advocate for taking care of oneself mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. These questions reflect my heart, NOT my profession.
This questionnaire is an opportunity to journal your thoughts and feelings. It can serve as a launching pad on which to evaluate your heart condition as you understand it. My hope is that you will take the truths you discover about yourself and hold them up to the Light to evaluate them against who God says you are.
- What stood out to you in the lyrics for each song? Write it out.
- What is your response to God after listening to these songs?
- What do you enjoy best about Easter?
- What is it about God and Easter that you hold close to your heart?
- Name 3-5 things you are thankful to God for.
- Do you have a gratitude practice or a journal in which you record all the various ways God’s presence is seen/experienced?
Take Action
Use God’s Word to take control over the traumas in your life. Whenever you feel terrorized by your thoughts take them captive by replacing them with the truth of God’s promises in His Word.
Here is a scripture for you to print, cut and carry with you and/or post in places where you will see it often. Ground yourself in God’s truths not Satan’s attacks. Encourage your heart and mind every time you are reminded of His great love for YOU!
Here is what God’s Word says about His unfailing, relentless, unending love for you:
“Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” Isaiah 53:1-2 (NIV)
Translation: First, ask the Lord what He means by these scriptures. Read the whole verse and highlight things that you want God to speak more into. What is God saying? Who is speaking? What are the facts? Talk to God because He waits patiently to have the opportunity to reveal Himself to you.
While in the flesh, Christ was a typical man with no worldly appeal and was the scorn of everyone. His saving grace while here on the earth was His intimate communing with His Father, constantly being reminded of the Father’s great love for Him. Although confined in human flesh, His identity was in the Father’s love for Him. He submitted Himself to God’s extravagant love and trusted His Father to redeem His life and accept His sinless sacrifice to pay the price to save those who would choose Him. During Christ’s life in human flesh, all He could see was the Father and the children that They love. How much more would be able to accomplish for the Kingdom if we communed with the Father and discovering our identity in the Father’s love for us?
