It is Sunday morning and as I sit and ponder this new day, the sun is peeking its way through my window and its warmth is like a sweet hug. It is not your typical Sunday…it is Easter Sunday. So as I sit here, I think of Jesus. I think of how he must have felt when he left the tomb that morning. Did he feel the warmth of the sun after the cold darkness of the tomb? I can picture Him raising his arms to the sky…with rays of sunlight filtering through his nail-pierced hands. I can see His smile of satisfaction as prophesy was fulfilled. I can almost feel His relief from all the pain His body had suffered just a few short days before.
I think about what was offered to us that day. The opportunity for salvation and eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, the freedom. Because he lived, died, and rose again…we are free. We are free to love as He loves. We are free to have patience as He had patience with his disciples that day as they were confused by His reappearance. We are free to have compassion, as Jesus did when he compassionately took a doubting Thomas’ hand and placed it on the wound in his side. We can have forgiveness, because Jesus paid the price for our sins, a price we could never pay.

When he walked out of that tomb that Easter morning, he had my face on his heart. He had your face on his heart. He had the faces of all mankind etched forever in his heart. There was no other reason for his death other than His love for us. No greater love will ever encompass this world. No greater freedom will ever be attainable for every knee that bows and every tongue that confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.

I am thankful, Jesus, that you walked this earth. I am thankful that you taught and healed. I am thankful for the brutal death you suffered for my sins. I am thankful for your resurrection, and the hope it offers me. I am thankful for your ascencion into heaven, and the eternity I can look forward to with you. My gratitude is overflowing this morning as I think of that day so long ago, that beautiful Easter morning that changed the world forever.

““Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.” Mark‬ ‭16:6‬ ‭