One of my earliest childhood memories is of wearing a colourful, brand new outfit to church on Easter Sunday. My sister and I received these pretty dresses and bonnets, hand-made by our mom, every Easter while we were little. We felt beautiful, happy and loved.

This may not be a very spiritual memory and some might say it was simply a practice of vanity. But, was it?

A mother’s love for her children mirrors closely the love of God for his people. Just as mom showered her little girls with her gifts of craftsmanship, so God lavishes His people with His own creations. The extent of his provision is too vast and rich for us to comprehend; but that amazing Easter event in Israel tops all else, for all time.

When I think back on my mother, and being a mother myself, I empathize with Jesus’ mother Mary, witnessing her son’s death. I can picture her there, observing that horrendous display on the hill of Calvary. And even though we would think Jesus’ friends understood everything that was happening, it is said that many of them ran off in fear as the time got closer. Actually, it remains unclear as to who and how many were in attendance at the crucifixion. Friends, siblings…almost all stayed away. But reportedly, his mother was there with a few others hovering nearby. I imagine that all Mary wanted to do in those moments was to re-write this brutal day in history, bring her son down from the cross, lovingly bandage his wounds and just cradle him. I doubt that I, as a mother, could bear that scene on the hill. I would have been demolished by it, unable to move or even breathe. In fact, I have often had trouble attending Good Friday services because of the emotion it evokes in me.

But thankfully this story carries GOOD NEWS and leaves behind the darkness and dismay. After Jesus suffered, died and was buried, He rose from the grave having mastered death; now God had offered his most lavish, wild and extravagant gift of love. Just like my mother crafted beautiful things for me, not out of vanity but out of passion, so God poured out the most exquisite, costly gift in the world: His Son, JESUS!

“Peter and John came running, seeing the tomb was empty
Finding His clothing lying on the floor
Why do you seek the living, here in a place of dying
Mary, you do not have to cry anymore……

I will let myself think it, I will dare to believe it
He lives…JESUS LIVES!!”
from the song “Jesus Lives” by Dan Barker

John 3: 16
For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have Everlasting Life.