"By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge its rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant treasures." Proverbs 24:3

This Easter, Make Room For All The Beautiful Stuff.

We took a field trip to the Chinese Gardens on Good Friday.  We walked among beautiful plants and decorative buildings.  We listened to peaceful, live music while sipping tea and eating almond cookies in the tea house overlooking the pond.  However, two beautiful, fun-filled hours were almost destroyed by a short five-minute experience with one very rude volunteer worker.  The boys and I walked to our car feeling frustrated and deflated.  I didn't want to drive away with those negative feelings hanging over us, so in an effort to cheer up, I told the boys that we should think about all the fun we had and not let just one person get us down.

The Anchor immediately perked up, and in his four-year-old surprisingly profound and wise way, he offered this suggestion:  "I know, Mom!  If we put all the beautiful stuff over here and all the bad stuff over here, then we can cut off the bad stuff and throw it away.  Then there will be more room for the beautiful stuff!"

So we named all the good things and placed them in the air on one side of the car.  We talked about the bad things that happened and put them on the other side.  Then we cut off the bad stuff, gathered them up in our hands, and threw the whole ball of badness out the car window, and just to be sure it was thoroughly destroyed, The Free One threw a stick of dynamite out with it and blew it to pieces.

With the Easter holiday fresh in my mind, I realized that this is very similar to what Jesus did for us.  He took all of our "bad stuff" and put them all upon His own body.  Then, He allowed His body to be beaten, whipped, torn to shreds, and nailed to a cross, so that all that bad stuff, OUR bad stuff, was completely destroyed, "blown to pieces."

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  (Colossians  2:13,14)


Conquering sin and death, He destroyed all the bad stuff:  the hate, the grudges, the bitterness, the strife...  the sin that so easily entangles us.  He came back to life to make infinite room for all the beautiful stuff:  love, laughter friendship, peace... eternal life!

Today as we celebrate, let's put aside all the bad stuff and make room for all that is good.

Make room for that person in your life who is so very unlovable.  Christ died and rose for you when your were unlovable.

Make room for forgiveness.  
Christ died and rose so that you could be forgiven.

Make room for peace with your enemies.  
Christ died and rose so that you could have peace with God.

Here's to an Easter day that makes room for all that is beautiful!

Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth.  For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  Colossians 3:13,14

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