THE ADVENTURE OF OPENING DOORS

Opening the Door, Jamestown, NC

“I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.” --Joseph Campbell

My two-year old grandson was visiting this Easter weekend and quickly discovered the pass-through door between the kitchen and dining room.  He immediately became fascinated with the ability to turn the door knob and move between the rooms to new adventures and imaginings.  He’s a naturally curious little guy which will serve him well in future life and the door provided endless play time in coming and going.  First, he drove his lighted fire truck through the matrix into new dimensions and then wheeled his tow truck into the portal to new adventures.  Soon he was beckoning his parents and Papa to open the door at his request or opening the door for them as they politely knocked on the other side to obtain entrance into his world.

Joseph Campbell has also written that "people say what we're all seeking is the meaning of life...I think what we're seeking is the experience of being alive."  There’s no better model of behavior for being alive than to experience the life of a two-year old at play.  There are no filters to edit out the most basic wonders of the world around us that we can no longer see or appreciate.  There is no bias or fear of giving strangers a high five if our family has introduced us.  An empty container, a cardboard box, a small fallen tree branch or an everyday door can be the source of endless entertainment when the imagination is engaged.  Having someone whose voice you recognize that is knocking on the other side makes for great fun when you open the door and find them waiting to greet you.

A famous painting exists of a prominent closed door with Jesus standing outside knocking. The subtle focal point of the painting is that the door does not have a door knob on the outside.  It’s the best example I can think of that illustrates the concept of free will which we all have been endowed with to either invite him into our lives or to shut him out.  But I believe that if we follow our bliss and freely open the door, we will encounter joy in life and experience the priceless adventure of being alive forever! 

LENTEN HOPE

LENTEN SEASON, JUMC, Jamestown, NC

The worst thing is never the last thing

As I was preparing to drive to our weekly mission for elementary students where I volunteer each Monday afternoon, I was wondering if my time and efforts were making any difference at all.  We had been having informal conversations about how to keep the kids settled down so that we could actually make a difference in their lives by mentoring and sending them home with a hot dinner.  Maybe our presence meant nothing at all.

Our leader started the free after school program with a singing rehearsal to prepare the students for a short program this Lenten Sunday at our church.  I sat at an empty table across from them and watched them sing.  Then a small third grade girl slipped up beside me and softly asked if she could talk to someone.  I noticed that she seemed distressed as her head was bowed.  I looked down and said “Of course, what’s the matter”, not really expecting anything too troubling.  She put her small arms around me and whispered something so soft with the singing in the background that I couldn’t understand her.  I leaned down to make eye contact with her teared-up eyes and saw the grieving tears slowly trail down her cheeks.  She ever so slightly raised her voice and said, “My grandmother died yesterday.”

I was totally caught off guard and could only reply “Oh, I’m so sorry.”  We just stood there as the other children continued their rehearsal and hugged for a minute.  Two other helpers comforted the girl and then I directed her over to an empty table and let her pour out her pent-up emotions before I spoke again.  It occurred to me that she may have just come to the realization that she would never see her grandmother again and that they must have had a very loving relationship.

I mentioned to the little girl that both of my grandmothers had died, but I knew they were safe and happy in God’s heaven.  And I was certain that they were OK and even sometimes watching over me too.  That finally seemed to provide some hope and reassurance that everything would eventually get better.  When the singing was finished and an activity time had begun, two of the other children asked what was wrong and to their credit, immediately invited the little girl to join them.  Soon she was smiling again.

Defeating death on that Black Friday afternoon over two thousand years ago and rising from the empty tomb is the great hope for all mankind.  That eternal truth once more revealed itself to me through the tearful eyes of a young child this Lenten season.  And I knew that I had made a difference today.  

FORTY YEARS TOGETHER

Larry and Karen Wedding, 1968, Olathe, KS

APRIL 20, 1968-APRIL 20, 2008

My wife Karen and I celebrated our forty-year anniversary three months before breast cancer took her life as I held her hand.  So, it was no small coincidence that when I casually heard the lyrics to a new release of a Jason Isbell track on my Google home device that my head snapped around and it had my full attention.  The title of the song is If We Were Vampires which on first blush makes no sense whatsoever.  But I downloaded the track from The Nashville Sound and began to understand the lyrics.  The songwriter has known life, and the common destiny we all share, and this song needs to be shared by every couple on the planet.  Once I comprehended the lyrics, I understood the title:

"If we were vampires and death was a joke,

I wouldn’t feel the need to hold your hand…

Maybe time running out is a gift.

I'll give every second I can find."

I’ve had previous conversations with friends and couples about the elephant in the room when they come to realize later in life that barring a tragic accident, one of the two of them will some day be left to carry on without the other.  That realization can take the sting out of any petty offense or argument that is presently irritating them.  Neither should ever go to bed angry.  Of course, we’ve been given life to live to the fullest and we should do just that.  And if the time comes when one is left to spend some time alone, we should honor that bond and carry on, knowing that this life is only a finite segment of our existence and death is simply a transition from time to eternity.  And that spiritual existence is one spent in the presence of our creator with our loved ones in that beautiful forever.  Our time apart is relatively short in that context and it's only paused for a season.  Ironically, the refrain of the song says it all:

"It's knowing that this can't go on forever.

Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone.

Maybe we'll get 40 years together.

One day I'll be gone,

One day you'll be gone."

MEDITATION HAIKU

Serene Sunrise, Blue Ridge Mountains, NC

Breathing in, I see,
creation’s stardust in me.
Breathing out, I smile.

Breathing in, I see,
the light of the world in me.
Breathing out, I smile.

Breathing in, I see,
all my ancestors in me.
Breathing out, I smile.

Breathing in, I see,
I am always transforming.
Breathing out, I smile.

Breathing in, I see,
there is no death and no fear.
Breathing out, I smile.

Breathing in, I see,
all the wonders of this life.
Breathing out, I smile.

CONSCIOUSNESS

Waves, Jamestown, NC
Particles, Jamestown, NC

Science has been making some very profound discoveries and observations lately. USA TODAY announced in 2014 that the “smoking gun” needed to validate the inflation theory of the Big Bang has now been detected by a telescope in Antarctica. The team of U.S. scientists detected the tiny ripples in the cosmic microwave background that affected light created some 13.5 billion years ago. The universe was smaller than a marble just after the Big Bang when it expanded violently and instantaneously. The Bible is no science book and the narrative in Genesis simply states that our God, a conscious spiritual being, spoke the universe into existence. The three big things that astrophysicists are still looking for in the cosmos are dark matter, dark energy and extraterrestrial life. And science still does not have a good scientific answer for the creation of the universe.

Dr. Robert Lanza has been voted the third most important scientist alive by the NY Times. His initial background was in the biology field, but lately he has ventured into the world of physics, quantum mechanics and astrophysics. His biological perspective has enabled him to recently coin the term “biocentrism”, which postulates that life and consciousness are fundamental to the universe. In fact, he reasons that since the ultrafine-tuned laws, forces and constants of the universe sustain life, intelligence must have existed prior to matter. And it is consciousness that creates the material universe, not the common reverse theory. The mystery that is our consciousness can be defined as being mindful or aware of oneself as a thinking, feeling being. Our perception of our surroundings is limited to the brain’s interpretation of the stimuli received from our five senses. We humans have enough receptor cones in our eyes to see a rainbow of colors, but a dog cannot distinguish orange or red. “Does a tree falling in the forest make a sound if no observer is present”? We perceive the “sound” when disturbed air waves reach our ear drum and electrical impulses are interpreted by our brain. But no sound exists without an observer! The same logic follows with our other senses. Space and time are merely tools for our animal understanding and our God transcends them both.

Folks naturally identify themselves with their body, as we are conscious mortal beings. Many believe that when the body perishes, that’s it. But Lanza agrees with other scientists that no physical laws exist which would prohibit the existence of multiple universes. And our consciousness and soul may have been created right along with everything else at the Big Bang. Our nervous system and brain could be the receptors of this consciousness and the primary sites of quantum processing until our body expires. And then this information with our consciousness merges into another dimension apart from the body. In an era that now routinely resuscitates human bodies from clinical death, especially heart failures, more and more folks are returning back to the living with extraordinary spiritual accounts that try our sensibilities. The spectacular colors some perceive can only be related to our earthly experience with rare jewels.

One of the fascinating and thought-provoking premises of biocentrism is that “the animal observer creates reality and not the other way around…without perception there can be no reality”. Quantum theory tells us that everything in nature has a particle nature and a wave nature. Lanza discusses the “act of observation” in a famous two-hole experiment which “goes straight to the core of quantum physics…if one watches a sub-atomic particle or a bit of light pass through slits in a barrier…it behaves like a particle…it logically passes through one or the other hole…But if the scientists do not observe the particle, then it exhibits the behavior of waves that retain the right to exhibit all possibilities, including somehow passing through both holes at the same time”. German physicist Max Born demonstrated back in 1926 that quantum waves are waves of probability, not waves of material. This phenomenon applies to small discrete particles like photons or electrons. Large objects like a bus have smaller wavelengths that are too close together to be measured. A subatomic particle has been defined as a set of relationships that reach out and interconnect, not with objects, but with other interconnections. Lanza concludes that “without consciousness, matter dwells in an undetermined state of probability. Any universe that could have preceded consciousness only existed in a probability state”. The Bible informs us that human beings were created for relationship with the reasoning power and free will to make the conscious decision to either accept or reject other human beings and even our Creator.

Bernard Haisch has proposed a mind bending theory about consciousness in his book, “The God Theory”. He contends that “ultimately it is consciousness that is the origin of matter, energy, and the laws of nature in this universe and all others that may exist. And the purpose is for God to experience his potential. God’s ideas and abilities become God’s experience in the life of every sentient being…God experiences the richness of his potential through us because we are the incarnations of him in the physical realm.” Many scientists are proponents of the universe of reductionism in which “everything can be reduced to the behavior of particles of matter and energy”, completely apart from any spiritual connection. As a learned astrophysicist Ph.D., he contends that our consciousness is the ultimate connection to God, the spiritual creative force in the universe and the source of all consciousness. While we are in our everyday state of consciousness, we remain aware of our surroundings through the filter of the physical world. But mystics who are conditioned to enter the unfiltered state of ultimate consciousness or nirvana experience a state of peace, love and bliss, something Haisch defines as “a concentration point within a single universal consciousness”. Haisch writes that “My inner life of thought and awareness utterly denies that my consciousness is nothing more than an inanimate, chemical creation. I know better, and so do you.”

Consciousness exists apart from the body and survives death. The temporary physical world was created for the development and evolution of conscious human beings. Our natural timeless home lies in the wider supernatural realm of our conscious spiritual Creator. We are not only IN this universe, but we are OF this universe. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians (4:4-5), "There is one body and one spirit...one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all”. And we were created in God's image!

"The human consciousness is really homogeneous. There is no complete forgetting, even in death."--D.H. Lawrence

THE FIRST BENEFICIARIES OF BLACK FRIDAY

Black Friday, Internet Domain

As we start the season of Lent and move toward holy week, Good Friday looms ahead prior to Easter Sunday. I prefer to use the alternative name for that day which occurred over two thousand years ago as Black Friday. The sun stopped shining and darkness came over the whole land for three hours in the middle of that day as all nature mourned the impending death of its Creator. For the first time in all creation, the Father was temporarily separated from relationship with the Son. The temple curtain was torn apart in that hour. The curtain symbolically separated the court of the people and the Most Holy Place where only the high priest could enter once a year to atone for the sins of the people. Now, Jesus’ death removed the barrier between human beings and God so that His sacrifice could pave the way for the atonement of all sins and the promise of eternal life through the grace of God.

Just before Jesus was condemned to death on a Roman cross, however, a man named Barabbas had also been condemned to death. It was a Passover custom for the Roman ruler to pardon one prisoner. Barabbas had been convicted as a revolutionary insurgent and murderer. Interestingly, he was guilty of the same false charge against Jesus. Finding no fault with Jesus, Pilate offered the riotous crowd either Jesus or Barabbas to be set free; assuming they would chose the obvious guilty man. But Barabbas was spared certain death on that day and given new life while Jesus was sent to the cross in his place.

The names of many Jewish men of the day were derived from their father’s name. Interestingly, Bar means “son of” and Abba means “father”. Barabbas could be the son of any father--you or me. Jesus was crucified with two condemned men also dying on either side of him. One hurled insults but the other recognized His divinity and pleaded for him to "remember me when you come into your kingdom". And Jesus answered him; "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise". Only this one man was able to see beyond the seeming devastation of the cross to the triumph of the eternal Kingdom of God. As he breathed his last on the cross, Jesus softly spoke, “Father (Abba), into your hands I commit my spirit”.

We are all sons and daughters of our eternal Abba and after the events of Black Friday, we are all now the beneficiaries of His priceless grace. Grace means there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more and nothing we can do to make Him love us less. We only have to look to the cross to understand the full measure of His love. The condemned Barabbas was given a pardon for a second chance at mortal life, but the unknown dying man on Calvary received a last minute reprieve for eternal life!

I’VE BEEN EXPUNGED

Sacrificial Lamb, St.Louis, MO

I was recently notified by my Life Insurance Company that although I had been sending them policy payments for many years, the funds I had invested years ago to “cover” my financial obligations were just about depleted. They informed me that I would need to transfer considerably more funds into my account if I wanted to continue our relationship. After a brief consultation with my financial advisor who wrote the original policy, we were in agreement that there was no real need to continue playing the life game with these folks at this stage. After all, they’ve always been betting that I would continue living and reducing my debt and I was betting that I would not. Fortunately, they won!

As we concluded our conversation, my consultant advised me to simply let the policy lapse into default after a short grace period. The company would then “expunge” me from their records. After a brief pause, I responded that this actually sounded like a great way to start the New Year. I could be expunged and start with a clean slate! We both had a nice chuckle and parted company. A brief Internet search revealed that there’s a big legal difference between being expunged and pardoned. If your records are expunged, they are treated as if they never existed. When you are pardoned, however, it constitutes legal forgiveness, but it does not erase the event. One of the Merriam-Webster definitions of expunge is “to eliminate (as a memory) from one's consciousness”.

Coincidently, our Bible class this week is studying the eternal life concept of Atonement. We were reminded that the insight of atonement is almost too big for words or any one image for us human beings. When sin entered into the perfect world of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve became the first humans to experience the pervasive sense of separation from God. Only our Creator could “atone” for our shortcomings and restore the sense of being “at one” with His universal consciousness. The Old Testament people of God saw sin as an act of incurring death, so it was atoned by a death—by literally draining the life blood from a living creature. The ritual for the annual “Day of Atonement” involved a sin offering of a goat that was slaughtered and its blood was sprinkled over the holy mercy seat to “cover” the sins of the people. When Jesus approached John the Baptist to be baptized in the Jordan River and begin his mission to “cover” the sins of all mankind, John prophetically declared that “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”! A sacrificial lamb whose act of pure grace as a blood sacrifice could only be a substitute for all mankind if he were both human and divine.

Six hundred years before Jesus stepped into the Jordan, the prophet Jeremiah declared in chapter 31 that God would establish a new covenant with all mankind and Christ would be the foundation. God would write His law on men’s hearts, not stone, and provide a way to restore personal relationship through His final sacrifice. Jeremiah records the words of the Lord as declaring that through this new covenant “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more”. Our sinful records will be expunged from the Book of Life when we repent of them and seek His forgiveness! And I have no reservations about not making payments on a Life Insurance policy covering my mortal temporary life at this point, as my spiritual eternal life is still covered by the blood of the Lamb through God's priceless policy of atonement!

GIVING BACK

Divine Light, Jamestown, NC

I lost my mother and then my wife in the span of six months five years ago. A person could be very bitter and angry after experiencing such a loss. But the love and outpouring of support my family received from our Jamestown church family sustained us, along with the Easter hope in Jesus’s resurrection that we will all meet again in a beautiful forever. It’s a belief that is reinforced every Sunday and one that I would like as many others as possible to know. I understand that we all share a common destiny, but the Bible has taught me that once we depart this mortal life, those who believe in Christ’s salvation and the unconditional love of our God need only look to the cross for affirmation of His promise for an eternal spiritual life in His presence. In the meantime, Jesus left us with three years of teachings on how to live our lives and a model of the God who created us in His image. He distilled all the commandments into five simple words; “Love God and love others”. As a body of Christ, we have lots of opportunities to learn about this and to do this every day of the year, as the Light of God’s grace is generally dispensed through other human beings like us these days.

Our commitment pledge cards enable all of us to stop for a moment and evaluate our giving, what it means, and how much it should be for the coming year. It gives our church leaders a much better picture of how we should plan our ministry for the coming year based on our members’ giving plans and not guesswork. Our financial commitment to God is both a reflection of our faith and a critical part of what makes it possible to shine Light into the dark corners of people’s hearts.

YELLOW BUTTERFLIES & WHITE FEATHERS

Yellow Butterfly, Wrightsville Beach, NC
White Feather, Wrightsville Beach, NC

A number of years ago our family happened to be at a Carolina beach over Easter weekend. We had attended a number of sunrise Easter services in Kansas and we were looking forward to experiencing a resurrection service next to the vast ocean waters with the waves breaking onto the shoreline. As the light brightened over the ocean’s horizon, we did indeed experience a very spiritual remembrance of the risen Christ’s victory over death and the promise and hope for all mankind. Waves have symbolized renewal and life giving water throughout time.

Since that time, we’ve all enjoyed a meditative walk on the Carolina beaches at sunrise on a number of escapes from the madding crowds. A stroll along the beach at sunrise can be a very personal and spiritual time as a new creation unfolds for yet another day on planet earth. We were fortunate to have another beach trip this past Labor Day week with myself and my grown daughter and son-in-law. My wife of forty years certainly was with us in spirit, as she lost her struggle with breast cancer five years ago. The three of us were at her bedside when she was welcomed into the presence of our Heavenly Father.

The gardens around our beach home for the week were alive with very vibrant yellow butterflies this year. They flitted and darted in the cool breezes off the ocean waters among the brightly blooming tropical flowers. We photographed the gardens and rose every morning before sunrise to greet the new day and photograph the colorful sunrise over the sandy beach. And every sunrise is as unique as a snowflake or the shells that are left on the shore by the receding nighttime tide waters. All four of us had walked together on this particular beach and it brought back those kind of good memories that sustain you after you lose a loved one. As I walked the beach one morning, I was struck by the anomaly of a pure white feather lying among one of the many shell beds left exposed that day. Native Americans believed that departed souls manifested in the form of beautiful butterflies and visited their relatives to assure them that all is well. Feathers, especially white ones, symbolize purity, peace and love. They represent a sacred universal symbol of flight within the spirit world and serve as messengers of the Great Spirit. The ancients believed that they also convey a message that all is well on the other side.

It’s very understandable that butterflies and white feathers have come to symbolize spirit messengers over the centuries. Whether or not they are personified messengers in this mortal life will remain a mystery. But I do know that they both represent a beautiful reminder of those we hold close in our hearts and their presence does rekindle warm memories. Memories of long walks on the beach as the waves relentlessly break onto the sandy shore and the colorful light of a new creation assure us that God is present and He has those who go before us in the loving palm of his hand.

AFFIRMATION OF BEAUTY

Monet Water Lilies, Chicago, IL

It’s been observed that the underlying beauty to be found in this world is a testament for the existence of the Divine Mind that created it. From a personal perspective, the very uplifting observations we ourselves experience gives us a sense that life is not meaningless and there is purpose, organization, and something to trust in this reality. These “aha” moments can be found in the silence of a Midwestern sunrise over the rolling inland sea of tall prairie grasses, the straight line view of a brilliant sunset that illuminates covering clouds on the horizon of a vast ocean, the captivating music of a composer that was gifted with the ability to follow every note with the only possible note that could lift your spirit, the emotive choice of a word picture that absolutely describes a life changing revelation or the metered words of timeless poetry, the precise brush strokes that could hold your gaze for an eternity with the exact composition and color that perfectly suits your eye, the complex and mysterious spiraling DNA strands now seen via microbiology, or the infinite, expanding universe viewed through a deep space telescope that enables us to comprehend the extraordinary depth and precise balance of all matter.

Not everything in this present broken world is beautiful. But we see in life what we look for and we can work to see the inner beauty of many and improve the blighted landscape of our circle of influence. And glimpses of great art and beauty that we intuitively recognize when it enters our consciousness lights the path to creating a better world. It affirms a greater power in this existence and confirms that eternal truth and love will prevail in a beautiful, restored spiritual life that has been created for all of us.

EARN IT

Merci, Normandy, France
Uncle Lewis, Emporia, KS

Our Memorial message this past Sunday included a reflection back on the final scenes from the movie “Saving Private Ryan”. A small squad led by Captain John Miller had been ordered to find the last surviving son of a family so that he could be sent back home from the Normandy invasion. The dialog in those final scenes stirred up my curiosity enough to review them again last night. I fast forwarded to the final gruesome battle scenes when the soldiers were defending both Private James Ryan and a strategic bridge from the advancing German Nazis. The action was intense and gut wrenching, although I’m certain nothing Hollywood can create could come close to the horrors of actual combat.

Captain Miller was mortally wounded as the tide turned in favor of the American troops when reinforcements arrived at a the bridge. Captain Miller beckoned Private Ryan close. He whispered with his dying breath, “James…earn this. Earn it”. Those two words were obviously seared on Private Ryan’s heart for all eternity. The camera then focuses on his face which morphs into that of an aging veteran standing in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial many years later. It’s one of those hallowed places you encounter in Europe upon cresting a hill to discover that all the memorial markers were set in place at the same time and aligned in perfect rows. There’s no mistaking their origin and there are not too many locations in America like them with the exception of Civil War battlefields in the East.

Like so many other veterans before him, Ryan has returned to honor his fallen comrades and specifically the man who gave his life so that he would live. His family is standing in the background, giving him space. When Ryan’s wife approaches him, he turns to her and asks “Did I live a good life? Am I a good man”? He desperately needs his wife’s affirmation because he deeply understands the ultimate price that has been paid. She quietly responds, “You are”. That poignant exchange choked me up as much as any experience in my life, perhaps because I had just finished my lesson plans to teach a session on Jesus’ final week on this planet. He made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us so that we may have eternal life. My Uncle Lewis served in the medical corps in WWII and tragically lost his life at the all too young age of twenty nine. I too should be living my life to honor their sacrifice. God gave all of us the priceless gift of life. And how we live it is our gift to him. Earn it.

BREATH OF GOD

Prairie Winds, Central Flint Hills, KS

The book of Genesis is about beginnings. God spoke the universe into being and created human beings in his image. God is love and love expresses itself toward something or someone. Creation and destruction are constantly active around us. And the basic building block of all creation is the chemical star dust of that big bang. Human bodies were created from this star dust and human beings are given life the moment God’s “breath of life” enters the lifeless shell. The moment we breathe our last, our mortal bodies return to the star dust of the universe, presumably to be recycled into another creation. Modern science has long ago determined that matter can neither be created not destroyed.

Later in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, the prophet had a vision of God leading him to a valley of dry human bones. The dry bones represented the hopelessly and spiritually dead condition of the people. And God told Ezekiel to prophesy that the breath of the four winds would come and breathe into those slain, that they might live. And life was restored as the bones rose up and lived again! Once God puts His spirit back into a people, they will have new life.

Later in the New Testament book of John, the resurrected Jesus appeared to His disciples behind closed doors. He greeted the disciples by informing them that as the Father had sent Him, He was sending them out into the world to spread the good news of forgiveness and eternal life. He accomplished this by breathing on them and informing them with the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide them. Only God still has the power to forgive sins, but now we all have the kingdom within us and the privilege of telling others that God’s priceless grace of forgiveness and an eternal spiritual life after death is available to all!

THE FIRST BENEFICIARY OF BLACK FRIDAY

Black Friday, Internet Domain

As we move along in the holy week, Good Friday looms ahead prior to Easter Sunday. I prefer to use an alternative name for that day over two thousand years ago as Black Friday. The sun stopped shining and darkness came over the whole land for three hours in the middle of that day as all nature mourned the impending death of its Creator. For the first time in all creation, the Father was temporarily seperated from relationship with the Son. The temple curtain was torn apart in that hour. The curtain symbolically separated the court of the people and the Most Holy Place where only the high priest could enter once a year to atone for the sins of the people. Now, Jesus’ death removed the barrier between human beings and God so that His sacrifice could pave the way for the atonement of all sins and the promise of eternal life through the grace of God.

Just before Jesus was condemned to death on a cross, however, a man named Barabbas had also been condemned to death. It was a Passover custom for the Roman ruler to pardon one prisoner. Barabbas had been convicted as a revolutionary insurgent and murderer. Interestingly, he was guilty of the same false charge against Jesus. Finding no fault with Jesus, Pilate offered the riotous crowd either Jesus or Barabbas to be set free; assuming they would chose the obvious guilty man. But Barabbas was spared certain death on that day and given new life while Jesus was sent to the cross in his place.

The names of many Jewish men of the day were derived from their father’s name. Interestingly, bar means “son of” and abba means “father”. Barabbas could be the son of any father--you or me. Jesus was crucified with two condemned men also dying on either side of him. One hurled insults but the other recoginzed His divinity and pleaded, "remember me when you come into your kingdom". And Jesus answered him; "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise". Only this man was able to see beyond the seeming devastation of the cross to the triumph of the eternal Kingdom of God. As he breathed his last on the cross, Jesus softly spoke, “Father (Abba), into your hands I commit my spirit”. We are all sons and daughters of our eternal Abba, and after the events of Black Friday, we are all now the beneficiaries of His priceless grace. Grace means there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more and nothing we can do to make Him love us less. We only have to look to the cross to understand the full measure of His love. Barabas was given another chance at mortal life, but the unknown dying man on Calvary received a last minute chance at eternal life!

RESILIENT EASTER SPIRIT

Snowy Lenton Rose--Jamestown, NC

A smiling elderly man sporting a baseball hat over pure white hair entered the Cancer Center waiting room with his wife and sat across from us. He easily struck up a conversation with a couple of women awaiting treatments about the sudden April cold spell which was spitting intermittent spring rain and snow showers outside.

I was passing time engrossed in my book and couldn’t hear all of the conversation, but I did catch him saying, “We haven’t gotten much rain lately during this drought, but I’m sure we’ll get by. It’s the Lord’s land. I’m just looking after it. The Lord’s been good to me though. I’ve got some cancers, but I’ll get over it."

You could easily relate this wise man to someone who’s been very close to the earth and the reality of basic life truths. It was etched into each tanned character line of his face. He was in touch with the realities of the circle of life. He understood that the trials and tribulations in this life are relatively short when weighed in the balance of eternal life on this Easter season of rebirth and new life. He understood the meaning of stewardship and trust revealed in Genesis 2:15 and John 3:16!