Because He Lives

After our son Jackson was born, I was overwhelmed with several different emotions. For the most part I just felt joyful — as just about anyone would expect from a brand new, proud father — but occasionally, between the feelings of excitement and happiness, there was worry.

As we were hovering around the hospital bed blissfully inspecting our new son, Terri and I would occasionally rub the bottom of his feet. If you have ever done this with a newborn, then you know how incredible it actually is just because of how smooth their feet are — so much so that they don’t feel like real feet. We realized, in that moment, that Jackson’s skin was in the best condition that it will ever be for the rest of his life.

To me, this strangely speaks a lot about the world we live in, because now that he has come into this world, in time, his perfect skin will become imperfect. Eventually his feet will become rough and callused, he will bruise and get cuts and scrapes on his knees, and judging by the inheritance of his mom’s fair complexion, he will likely have his fair share of sunburns.

While this is a little saddening, the real source of my worry is centered more around knowing about the evil that he will have to face in this world. No matter how much Terri and I love him and do our best to protect him, at some point there will be people who will want to do mean things to him, and lie to him, and hurt him, and make him feel like something he is not. I don’t think this is a pessimistic way of looking at it. It’s simply reality. It’s the reality of our existence while we wait for Jesus to come back, and it was because of this reality that Easter took on new meaning for me this year.

Before we sat down with my family to eat our big Easter celebration meal, my grandma asked me to read a few stanzas from a hymn printed in the bulliten for the service that they attended that morning. One of the stanzas really put into perspective for me how important it is that Jesus’ tomb was empty on that morning over two millenniums ago.

How sweet to hold our new born baby
And feel the pride and joy he gives
But greater still the calm assurance
This child can face uncertain days
because He lives.

Happy Easter.