A Life Worth Living

Moments with my family are anticipated and savored and adored. This weekend we all gathered to celebrate Easter on the farm – the place where our roots run deep and where our most treasured memories are stored – to celebrate the life within our family and the life within our hearts.

We hear laughter and giggles and the patter of toddling feet that remind us of the life in the generations to come.

We sing the little cousins into their next year of life.

We cherish the legacy of the Easters before us.

We rest in the relationships that sustain us.

 The color coordinated gals - great minds think alike.

 The parents

The awesome cookie baker

Today is one of my favorite days of the year because it is a celebration of Life. 

You see, Jesus’ death absolutely changed me. But His resurrection? It saved me. The victory is won. And that God? The God who was and is and is to come? The God who was not held by death? He LIVES. That God left a grave to live forever in our hearts. The temple’s curtain that separated us from God was torn. And now nothing can separate us from the Life that lives within us.

And when I look at my life and realize that I have nothing to offer but empty hands, a broken heart, and a story gone wrong, God looks at me and sees all that He needs. He is a God of The Empty.  He brings us fullness and satisfies our hunger.  He works with empty hands and empty hearts and empty tombs. He fills it with beauty and grace and redemption. A life that could not be held by death is held in our hearts. And the beauty and wonder of it all is that Easter is for all of humankind, but Easter is also just for you. And He moved heaven and earth to get to you. YOU. You are His desire. His intention. His plan. His purpose. Even if you were the only person in the entire world – if no one else ever had or ever would exist – He still would have come here for you. He would have died for you. And He would rise for you.

What a promise and a victory and a Life we have! A Life worth living.  A Life worth dying for. A Life worth celebrating!