Easter

When you saw the picture connected to this post how did you feel?  What did you feel?  Did you smile? Was it a good feeling?

Let me tell you a little more about the picture.  It was sent to me by a friend who is a veterinarian in Pleasant View, TN.  He is also a shepherd.  “Lambing” season has just ended.  He had over a hundred lambs born in the last month.  This little lamb was one of a set of quadruplets.  She was less than the runt of the litter.  The newborn was near death when she was found.  Even if she did survive, his mother could not feed four babies.  An adoptive, proxy mother of such lambs decided to take the little near-death lamb.  Obviously, she did not die.  However, neither did she reach the growth she should have to prove her value to keep.  So, for now, she is a pet in the veterinarian office. Even the story of overcoming is warm and tender, worthy of a smile.

Back to the opening question, having seen the picture, and now read the story, “How do you feel?” I’m sure some folks would be indifferent.  There is a slight chance there might be someone who is angered or repulsed.  But most of us will have enjoyed both the picture and the story of survival.  I am not a person who understands or enjoys people who dress up like animals or animals dressed up like people.  But I do love the little innocent eyes, and I do like the story.

This is what Easter tells me this year.  When God looks down from heaven He feels the same way about me, His creation of my humanity.  The good feelings which are generated in us when seeing the picture and hearing the story are the same good feelings God has when He sees each of us.  That, I believe, is how He feels. But He cannot treat us according to his feelings.  In fact, He cannot touch us at all.  We may be cute and cuddly to Him but our condition is repulsive and corruptive to His nature, His identity, and His holiness. 

Each of us is/were objects of His considerable affection and at the same time the objects of His acute rejection.  God, being One, could not exist with such duality.  So He created a way to resolve his tension.  He became one of us.  You know the Christmas and Easter story.  There is no need to rehearse it here.  Easter is the celebration of the resolving of the difference between how our Creator feels about each of us and the way He must treat each of us.  He first saw us as “very good” then contemptuous rebels, and finally, by our faith, as his twice-born children.

This realization makes me feel good!