the resurrection and fear.

I love Easter. If Christmas is the celebration of “God with us,” then Easter is the celebration of “God rescuing us.” Christmas is special, yes. The God of the Universe humbled Himself to become a man so we could know him.

But without Easter, Christmas doesn’t really mean anything. Without a Savior who loved us enough to pay for our sin and a King powerful enough to raise from the dead, then Christmas is just about a nice guy.

And so for Christians, Easter is the biggest celebration of the year. Sin and death are defeated. Our King is alive. It’s time for a party. David and I love finding new ways to party each year at Easter time. We give extravagant gifts. We make mint juleps. We laugh more and play more and tell other people why we’re so excited.

Celebrating is lots of fun, but here on Monday morning, the Resurrection is still real. It touches my real life and my real problems.

I’ve been struggling for the past couple of months with fear. I’m walking through hard things with some people I love, and there are a lot of unknowns and it’s brought out all kinds of fear in my heart. I’m afraid of how things will turn out — or not turn out. I’m afraid of the future, of things I’m facing now happening again. I’m afraid of stories without happy endings.

Add to that the fact that we’re hoping to adopt a baby, and that brings more fear. A new person will join our family. Our lives will change. Our children’s lives will change. I’m afraid of not being in control.

When I start down this road my anxiety gets ahold of the thing and fear can become almost paralyzing. I find myself unable to enjoy my present life because I’m terrified of the future. And the fear gets bigger and bigger, like a monster in the night and now I’m not just afraid of my life but of the monster too.

Here’s the point of all of this: the Resurrection has something to say about my fear. Actually it has everything to say about it.

As I was sitting in a sun-bathed chair by the window one morning reading Galatians 4, God jolted me out of my fear-based trance by reminding me: “Fear has no power in your life.”

Those words were like waking up from a dream. And I knew, He’s right.

I can’t run away from fear. As a fallen person in a broken world who loves other people, fear is going to touch my life. From time to time I will feel its icy fingers until the day I die and go be with Jesus. But those fingers will never lay ahold of me.

Fear was paid for on the cross when Jesus died. And fear was defeated forever when He rose again on Easter Sunday.

I’m not a servant, cowering in uncertainty, waiting for the axe to drop. I’m a beloved daughter. I have a strong Father who is also King of the whole world, and because of the Resurrection, He’s on my side. I already know how this story is going to end.

I’m free from the powerful monster of fear, right here and now. The monster is a tiny trembling bug next to my King. And one day I won’t even remember that fear ever existed.

Long after the party stops, that’s something worth celebrating.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 

Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mt. Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mt. Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother.

– Galatians 4.22-28