Thinking about Easter.

The yard is beautiful as the sun brightly shines on the beautiful white snow covered yard.

snow?

it's spring... isn't it?

it is.  

it's the beginning of spring in Canada.

sometimes we get more snow.

This snow has me thinking about Christmas.

the season we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

without Christmas we would not have Easter.

Easter the season we remember the death and celebrate the resurrection of that same babe we remember at Christmas.

without Easter we would not have any reason to celebrate Christmas.

they are tied together and i always think about one when i think about the other.

It's Wednesday today.

Good Friday is in a couple days.

i was thinking about Christ dying on the cross for me.

and wanted to share a small portion of a book i read years ago.

The Book was Basic Christianity by John R.W. Stott

chapter 3: The Character of Christ

He was misunderstood and misrepresented, and became the victim of men's prejudices and vested interests.  He was despised and rejected by his own people, and deserted by his own friends.  He gave his back to be flogged, his face to be spat upon, his head to be crowned with thorns, his hands and feet to be nailed to a common Roman gallows.  And as the cruel spikes were driven home, he kept praying for his tormentors, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.' 

imagine the loneliness he was feeling at that time.

He was dying on that cross for those people... 

for the ones who were convicting him. 

for the ones just doing their job and crucifying him.

for the ones who enjoyed their job of crucifying him.

for the ones who had followed him up until that point, then scattered.

for the ones who watched with sadness and tears, feeling their hope fading.

for the ones who jeered, who spat, who mocked.

for the ones who walked by seeing another criminal on the cross, maybe thinking he got what he deserved.

for the people in the generations to come.

he was dying on the cross for all, whether they loved him or not.

and he forgave each of them.

they didn't understand back then.

they hadn't read the ending.

they thought their hope was gone.

their king!  

their saviour!

they didn't understand he was going to actually rise again.

The Romans knew what they were doing.

They didn't make mistakes with the cross.

no one came back after.

except one.