Another Easter remembrance

I love Easter. I also love Christmas, but there is so much hype and busyness surrounding the holiday that sometimes it is easy for Jesus to get lost. The Easter season is somehow different, at least in our family. It special time for us to really focus on Christ, and the meaning of his sacrifice.

Earlier today, I was reflecting on another special Easter memory I have, and I would like to share it with you all. It was 2001, the year Elijah was born. When he was just three days old he had a small surgical procedure. The procedure went fine, but because of his age, he went to the neonatal ICU to recover instead of the pediatric floor. We weren't allowed to hold him, he hadn't been allowed to eat for twelve hours prior to the surgery or for at least eight hours after, and the attending doctor would not give him pain medication (b/c he was so little and "wouldn't remember the pain" I still bristle at the memory!). Once the anesthesia wore off, he screamed for eight hours nonstop. It was excrutiating to watch him suffering that way.

About two weeks later, it was Easter Sunday, and my husband shared our experience with Elijah as a communion meditation. He talked about seeing his son naked, alone, hungry, thirsty and in pain, and how all he could think was, "Help him! Make it stop!" and how he would have given anything in the world to stop the suffering that Elijah was going through. Then he compared his feelings as a father watching his son suffer to how God must have felt watching His Son on the cross. Jesus was also naked, alone, hungry, thirsty and in pain. The difference is that God could have made it stop, but He didn't. He allowed His Son to suffer, even unto death, for us.

My eyes were spilling over with tears. My husband's words reminded me that God understood all we had been through, and that no matter how much we loved our baby boy, God loved him even more. God did not spare the suffering of His own Son so that my son might have the hope of eternal life, and so that we all might have that hope.

Have a blessed Easter everyone!