“See, I am making all things new…It is done! I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”
Revelation 21:5-6
During this year’s Easter season our theme has been the question, “How are you practicing resurrection?” This is an interesting question for us to ponder. How am I as a Christian living out new life in my day to day life? How do I help to make things new and bring new life to people who are broken or lifeless?
In scripture, Christ promises to make all things new, redeeming us, overcoming death for us and promising us the gift of water from the springs of the water of life. Isn’t this wonderful news? This means for each of us who are Baptized members of the body of Christ that we no longer need to live in the shadow of death. We no longer need to ‘worry’ about death and the problems of this world. Instead we can live each day filled with the hope of this promise of new life. This does not mean that we won’t face difficulties, but that we need not worry about what will ultimately come of our difficulties because we will again have new life, and Christ will walk with us as we are becoming new!
What this means for our everyday life as Christians is that we should be people of hope in the world. We should do our best each day to be examples of this hope in the world because when we do, this hope points to the God who has already saved us through the work of Jesus Christ.
There is a story I once read in a devotional, about a man who had a daughter who asked repeatedly for her dad to put her up on top of the refrigerator and count to three, so she could jump off into his arms. He would do this, but she would never jump. He goes on to relate this experience to areas of his spiritual life, asking God to show him areas in his life that he needed to work on; places where he is afraid to jump in and start working. This is the real challenge for us as ‘people of hope’; we need to ask God where we need to ‘jump in’ for Christ? We should ask ourselves, not only for our own good and growth, but maybe more importantly so that others can see what Christ means to us and then maybe they too can begin to do some jumping of their own.1
As we consider what it means to be ‘people of the resurrection’, I pray that we might be able to trust that GOD will be there for us when we jump out to help people in the world. When we do we are ‘practicing resurrection’ and helping to create newness in the world. There is nothing that is more hope filled than this! As Christ’s children – the church – may we all live each day as people of the resurrection? Thanks be to God! – Pastor Dan
1 Mark Sandra Drescher, “Just Between God and Me”, (Zondervan Books, 1977.)