Seeing is Believing

For most of us Easter means ham, eggs hunts, baskets, attending church on Sunday and indulging in too many cadbury eggs and peeps. I, in fact, love Easter. I admit, I love the giving of baskets, goodies, dying eggs, and putting on my Easter best. I love that is signifies the coming of spring, sun dresses, sandals and my cherished white Tory Burch purse. Its a time of newness, rebirth, and life.  This is clear through the green grass sprouting, blooms on the trees, and the life that April showers bring. This year I am especially excited for Easter because this year, I can see beyond the Hallmark holiday and into the greater gift not found in any perfectly embroidered basket.

I'd like to paint a picture for you.

Its warm, dusty, crowded. People are shoulder-to-shoulder. They are shouting with joy and its almost as if they are watching a parade. In a sense, this is a parade. Slowly, Jesus makes his way through the crowd, atop a donkey. He is exalted, esteemed, and given a king's welcome into the city. Cloaks are laid at his feet to form a path, and the crowd shouts "Hosana!" The same crowd that will just days later shout "crucify him!"

Could you do it? Would you do it? Ride atop a donkey knowing what is to come? Could you submit your whole being for your father? For all the world's people? Would you be obedient when every fiber in your body screams, no?

This scene painted so artfully in all four Gospels never ceases to amaze me. Its sends chills through my body and reminds me of His awesome love.

See, He knew we could not do it, would not do it. He mustered the courage, the obedience, the loyalty, the faith and walked into a crowd who shouted at Him "Hosana"--help us, save us. How fitting.

This picture is one of the love he had for us, the sacrifice he gave for us. He rode into the crowd knowing full-well what was to come, and never turned back.

What a display of faith. This is where I falter. I have for sometime looked backwards for what I could have done or should have done, and become frustrated when I am unable to control the forward momentum of my life, wanting so badly to know what will come. But I can neither change the past, or control the future. Just like Him. So this Easter season, I will walk by faith alone. I will trust in Him. Because, my heart will betray me, my friends will betray me, my family will betray, but like Him when the crowd betrayed Him, He saved.

We need not see to believe, only trust.