(After a spring break of ALL three kids being sick, I’m back…and late for a “Marriage Monday”…but I’m here!)
We had a wonderful Easter weekend- I hope you did too! Our small group at church spent Saturday serving a picnic to the clients of our church’s food pantry in celebration of Easter. It was such a gift to serve, to connect with our community, and to do it all with my husband and children.
But that experience got me thinking about what impact Easter has in my real life – beyond the fancy dresses we wear to church (if I were actually organized enough to actually buy those fancy dresses), the beautiful music and the goodies that fill our kids Easter baskets.
What does Easter mean in my life – today? Tomorrow? What are the practical implications of Easter for my family, for my marriage?
I’ve talked a lot about growing a “heaven on earth” marriage here on the blog, and I’m coming to believe that “heaven on earth” living is exactly what Easter has to do with my marriage.
While He was on the earth, Jesus prayed: “Lord, let your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth AS IT IS in heaven.” And He told us to pray the same thing.
This access to “heaven on earth” is what we hold onto and claim as our post-Easter reality.
Easter was the historical marker in time where God stepped into the reality of our world and began something NEW. It’s the moment He inaugurated His Kingdom rule and reign on the earth; the moment He initiated the transformation of all things back to the restored goodness of Eden – life without the pain and destruction of sin. (Colossians 1:15-23)
Jesus revealed His victory over the darkness of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and everyday since The Fall when He walked out of the grave. And with LIGHT and LIFE, He broke into the world on Sunday with a NEW START – for all. On Easter, Jesus introduced LIFE, HOPE, RESTORATION for all the cosmos. Not just a solution for our personal sin, but the beginning the process of putting all that is broken in the world back together again.
Jesus did this as the power of God tore the veil in the temple (which once separated everyone but the priests from God’s holy presence). The torn veil symbolized the reality that Jesus made a way for us to ALL have free access to His healing presence.
No matter what we face (in our marriage, in our sin, in our hopelessness, in our fear) we have an open invitation to come to Him. An invitation to be filled with LIFE. Not just “life after death”, but renewed life NOW- so that heaven can begin to be revealed NOW in our everyday comings and goings. In our everyday mess. In our everyday joy. In all things.
As we let Jesus into our real lives and relationships, and give Him the authority to change us from the inside out, our hearts and minds begin to be changed. And soon the very core of our lives change.
As a result of surrendering ourselves to Christ, our approach to relationships changes. Our relationships begin to be renewed, made afresh and put to rights. Sometimes little by little. Sometimes in a rush of miraculous transformation. But it’s the transformation that embodies the Easter message being worked out in context of real life- in the context of our real marriages.
That’s the power of God for salvation.
Not a salvation that is apparent after death, but a salvation that shifts our reality NOW.
It’s His rule and reign being supreme in our hearts, lives, and families…working it’s way into all we are and all we do. And as we let Him be King, and renew our lives with His power, truth and freedom, glimpses of heaven begin to be revealed.
Easter means hope for our marriages – the coming of heaven to earth in our daily living. It means heaven on earth in our communication, our ability to respect, love and honor one another in a way that surpasses our natural ability, and taps into God’s power for our real living as He reigns supreme in our hearts.
That’s real Love at work in our love lives. That’s the Easter reality in our daily lives. And it’s so good.