The Easter Breakout

It was a quiet peaceful Easter afternoon and a nice nap was just completed when I realized the cows were not in the pasture where they belonged.  Instead the whole herd of twelve were walking around in the unfenced hayfield next to the house.  In a second I went from nap mode to high gear.  I hurriedly got a bucket and some cow feed laced with molasses.  Just before the girls made it to the neighbor's field, I gave my best cow call and started beating on the bucket with my hand.  They came running and I led them back in the gate which had mysteriously been forced open.  Maybe it was the wind, or maybe a couple of cows were into mayhem!

 

To be on the safe side, I think I am going to buy a new padlock.  Maybe a bigger one.  One that looks stronger than the one that has served me for nine years.  As I thought about the cows getting out from a padlocked gate, I thought about Jesus getting out of a tomb locked by a big stone.  After all, it was Easter afternoon.  I could put my cows back behind what held them where I put them, but it was impossible to put Jesus back in the tomb and keep Him there with a bigger stronger looking stone. He made it out of that tomb and it was an irreversible act that had life changing impact for all of us.  When we shout "He is Risen!" on Easter Sunday, it is for real.

Are we not all grateful beyond measure that there was nothing which could keep Jesus in the tomb?  Even as His death and resurrection broke the power of sin in our lives, so did it break the power of death over us.  I cannot begin to understand it.  It is beyond anything I can explain.   But, not understanding has not kept me from a sure and certain hope that even as Jesus has been raised from the dead, so shall we as we put our faith and trust in Him.  I have believed it since that day my father died when I was seven, I came to a  place of accepting it as truth when I first decided to follow Jesus, and it shall be my song till I die and enter into that glorious life that Jesus has been preparing for me since before the beginning.  All praise to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.