Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Spring is in the air, flowers are beginning to push out of the ground, birds are singing and building their nests. All signs point to new life and a new beginning as winter fades and loses strength.

Like the seasons, Easter is a reminder of Christ’s darkest days giving way to light. Out of the winter of Good Friday, came Easter. Author Phillip Yancey says in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Easter holds the promise of reversibility. Destruction and even death can be reversed because of what Christ accomplished on the Cross. Easter is the starting point. Our present lives are the contradiction of what is to come. Easter is a preview of an ultimate reality.

If God could do what He did on Easter, then what more does He have for us eternally? Easter is a glimpse of eternity.

Yancey also points out that the physical scars Christ suffered remained on Christ’s transformed body as a reminder that suffering is real but had a purpose. On that Good Friday, it looked like evil won, but Easter says no, not true. Jesus triumphed over the grave. Death could not keep Him and He rose again!  No matter how bleak Good Friday seems, Easter helps us remember that one day disease will be erased, wrongs will be righted, and brokenness will be healed. Darkness eventually gives way to glorious light. We are created to hope in Him and long for that day when suffering is no more.

Psalm 39:7 declares, “My hope is in Him,” not circumstances or people. Psalm 119:147 says, “I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.” On Good Friday, cry for help, but remember Christ is risen! He defeated the darkness. Easter is just around the corner.

This Easter season choose hope. Refuse to give in to despair. Christ loved you and died for you. But it didn’t end there. He is alive!  “Love never gives up, never loses faith is always hopeful, and endures every circumstance ” (I Corinthians 13:7). His love for you never fails. Hope in Him.

Happy Easter. He is risen. He is risen indeed.