Easter Week: More than just chocolate eggs?

One thing constantly amazes me about human beings.  We are able to suffer some of the most grievous and most cruel imaginings, and yet often the body, mind, and soul can miraculously be restored.  If we are given a chance, and often this is only afforded through the compassion of others.  

This theme keeps popping up in my life, evoking from me a strange curiosity and wondering.  My wife is a doctor and I am constantly around stories of people being healed, but in all fairness these stories are tragically associated with stories of being people un-healed.  There are those who do not get better, take unexpected turns for the worse, or are too broken for a healing hand to help.

Perhaps we are all too aware of these tragedies in our midst.  The media tends to gravitate towards stories of corruption, depravity, death, and mayhem.  It can be difficult at best to believe there is good in this world at times, unless we search for something to drag us back to the reality of its existence on occasion.

Last week I gathered with other believers in Christ, and as we finished our time in worship a guest speaker who grew up in Uganda stood to share with us her story.  It was simple in the end.  She had been born into such poverty that her parents had sold her into slavery.  It was a choice between this or letting her die.  So from an age where most of us are getting dressed up by our parents so pictures can be sent world wide of our insane cuteness, she was being forced to wake up before dawn to go and draw water for her...owners.

The quote she said that most stuck in my heart was, "Do not cry for me tonight.  I have lived and have experienced the joy of compassion."  You see her life was changed by one of those countless folks who give money to an organization that reaches out to these children, freeing them from a lifestyle of slavery and offering for them instead - a family, food, education - freedom.

A group called Fountains of Peace changed her life forever, and listening to her speak I could not help but think about how the only thing that seemed to remain in her from that terrible start to life was a drive to help the other children still in that situation.  She was not broken.  She was not irreparably damaged.  She is whole and an agent of change!  She was restored by her God thanks to the help of her brothers and sisters.

Another story I read this past week touched me because it put stories like this one I have just shared into vivid photos.  This is a story of an abused dog that had been tossed down a trash chute.  As unimaginable as that is to me as a human being, what is even better then the evilness of this act, is the compassion of the countless acts that nursed this dog back to health.  Read the story by clicking here.   

It truly is amazing how much change we can bring about in the lives of others.  Moving into the celebration of Easter I am focused intently on the idea of resurrection.  My whole faith and life depends on a belief that resurrection is not just something that happened over 2,000 years ago, but is something that continues to happen on a daily basis in my life and in the lives of others.

If you get a chance open up the Bible and read Psalm 118, the psalm which is most likely being referred to when the people shout to Jesus as he proceeds into Jerusalem on the donkey, "Hosanna!" (in John 12 and Matthew 21)  As a form of exclamation this word most often is translated from the Hebrew as "Save us!" (as seen in Psalm 118:25)

People all around us are shouting "hosanna" and you or I just might be the answer God is sending them.  Will you kneel down and embrace the disfigured man?  Will you nurse an animal back to health?  Will you give a monthly donation so a child can be freed to live?  Where is someone shouting or even whispering "hosanna" near you, maybe too weak to raise their voice any longer?  Will you save someone?

The tomb is empty and Christ lives.  He lives in us.  Let us be the loving arms of God to those around us this week as we turn to celebrate the greatest miracle of all!