“Dad, there’s a snake in the yard!  And it isn’t a worm.”  On an Easter many years ago when our children were little, we wanted to do Easter as we had in the States even though we had recently relocated to the other side of the globe.  So we hid eggs and had our own little Easter egg hunt in our new yard.  The kids enjoyed it so much that afterward they re-hid the eggs and had their own hunt.  Husband and I went inside, but from the open window, we heard a little voice adamantly declaring, “Dad! There’s a snake and it isn’t a worm.”  Yikes!  Husband was out in the yard like a flash.  Sure enough, there in the flower garden was a young cobra.  It reared its hooded head and my hero lopped off its head.  (Sorry, but if it’s my children’s lives or a snake’s, I chose my children.)  Nothing like a little excitement on a happy Easter afternoon.

But isn’t it like our soul’s enemy to make his appearance in the middle of our celebrations?  That snake, the devil, is clever and slithers into our best days.  On the last night that Jesus had with his closest friends, they were celebrating Passover with a seder meal eating a Passover lamb together.  Even in this holy hour, the devil entered Judas and pushed him into his infamous betrayal of Jesus, his friend.  Judas was likely harboring resentment against Jesus for not accepting earthly kingship.  Judas also was greedy for money and was in the habit of stealing from the group’s funds.  When he was offered a handsome sum of money to betray the Lord, he was easily enticed.  So let’s be on our guard during this holiday.  Let’s sweep out any leaven, the symbol of sin, just as Jewish households clear their homes of any baked goods with yeast in them during this week. Let’s not give the devil any footholds in our hearts by having wrong attitudes.  Unforgiveness, ungratefulness, worry, envy, fear all give our enemy, the devil, a toe hold to destroy our happiness.

Ever stop to think about our holiday greetings?  Merry Christmas and Happy Easter. We get joy from celebrating what Jesus did.  Let’s live in the happiness of Happy Easter.  In the words of King David, “I see that the Lord is always with me . . . He is right beside me.  No wonder my heart is glad!”

He is right with me since “God raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip.”  We celebrate a strong God, a God who is with us, a God who triumphed over death.  And that means we get his strength, his presence, and his triumph over our own death.  Not surprising that we say Happy Easter!

“But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him.  But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip.

King David said this about him (Jesus):

‘I see that the Lord is always with me.
I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.
No wonder my heart is glad,
and my tongue shouts his praises!

My body rests in hope.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.
 
You have shown me the way of life,
and you will fill me with the joy of your presence.’  Psalm 16:8-11
 

“Dear brothers, think about this! You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn’t referring to himself, for he died and was buried, and his tomb is still here among us.  But he was a prophet, and he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David’s own descendants would sit on his throne.  David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.
 God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.  Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand.” Acts 2:23-32

“No wonder my heart is glad! The Lord is always with me, he is right beside me.”  We don’t have to conjure up a happy feeling when we’re down.  We only have to remember that Jesus is with us, right beside us.  He “fills us with the joy of his presence.”  He is joyful and when we’re with him, we have his joy.  What we really want more than answers to our problems is to be loved by a Companion that never leaves.  We can deal with any problem when he is with us.  Happy Easter!

Earlier in that same week as the story above, we had purchased a live lamb from the market.  You can read about that experience here https://heartmindsoulandstrength.com/2018/10/hari-paska/