April 2009 Publication

If I were to ask you to describe Easter without using any words, you could only use punctuation marks, which punctuation mark would you choose to describe this Easter for yourself? Maybe this Easter is a comma for you. It makes you stop, pause, think, and listen, but that's about it. Perhaps today is a downer - a big bold period. You thought you'd feel excited, but instead it seems to be more like empty ritual. You feel like you're not on the inside, but on the outside ... an onlooker.

It was a day when life felt like a period for Jesus' disciples. He was dead. He was buried. An end to expectations. But wait - news of an empty tomb ... the period is no longer a period. It's a question mark. That's worse than a period. Now they're beginning to doubt. Where is He? They're perplexed. The guards are gone, the stone is rolled away. He is not there. And if not there, where?

An angel speaks, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while he was in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and how He must be crucified, and the third day He must rise again." Of course they remembered! The periods are gone. The question marks are removed. There is one massive exclamation point!

That's what Easter is all about ... an exclamation of gratitude and of praise for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and for the salvation of His victory over death brought to us.

Jo Lo Musio, "If I Should Die Before Live"

Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25, 26.

What punctuation mark will characterize your Easter?

Pastor John Giesbrecht

If I Should Die Before I Live