This year, Easter comes at a good time for me.
First, let me say that Easter is why I’m a Christian.
Sure, I was born in a Christian family, but Easter is why I’m still a Christian.
Jesus claimed to be God. Well and good, but since he rose from the dead, doesn’t that imply that we should listen to him?
Did he really rise from the dead? Well there were twelve men (and many more) who claimed to be eyewitnesses of that. Those twelve all died for that belief. If they’d made it up, I think they probably would have decided the lie wasn’t worth their lives.
But given all that, which I believe with all my heart, this year I’m thinking about Resurrection and New Life.
I’ve been writing about my life this year in Project 52, writing each week about one year of my life.
Speaking of Resurrection (since that’s what we do on Easter), I was reminded that when I finally filed for divorce (still a couple weeks ahead in Project 52), I was thinking of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac.
In Hebrews 11, it says:
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
I was offering God my marriage – and I so hoped that God would bring it back from death!
Well, God didn’t do that. But, in many ways, God gave me a whole new life. It’s a different form of resurrection.
Last week on Tuesday, I posted about becoming a Librarian and attending my first Newbery Banquet.
On Wednesday, I found out I was elected to the 2019 Newbery committee!
Before my divorce, I didn’t even have a career. I worked part-time at a library, but I wasn’t a librarian, and I was happy with that.
When my divorce happened, for awhile I wasn’t sure I’d ever be happy again.
Now, I’ve got a career and a calling, and getting on the Newbery committee is the epitome of that.
This isn’t the life I expected. But I’m thankful to God for giving me a new life and granting me the desires of my heart.
Resurrection didn’t happen to my marriage. But in a sense it happened to my very life.