hot-wireEaster is about resurrection. It’s about death turning into life again; new beginnings and fresh starts.  I was sitting in my study early this morning thinking about the message I’ll be preaching on Easter Sunday when I pushed back from my computer and looked out the window. The light of a new day was breaking on a distant Butte illuminating the in-breaking of spring. It caused something to leap in my spirit when I realized that the last of the long winter snow was rapidly melting and the land which had been dormant for so long was about to explode into new life again.  For me it was a revealing picture of the nature of God.

The Apostle Paul once wrote “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky.  Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”  In other words, nature as we know it is a reflection of God’s nature.  Actually that’s why we call nature – nature; not because it’s about “mother nature”, but because it reveals the nature of God the father.

God’s nature is for resurrection and restoration, not for destruction or obliteration.  Consider how a seed dies at the end of one season, and how it falls into the ground giving birth to new life as the new season breaks forth. Consider how a prairie fire scorches the land turning everything in its path into ash only to bring forth greener and healthier grasslands as the rains fall and the new season begins.

Isaiah 61 is a very special piece of scripture because it reveals the ministry and heart of the prophesied messiah. Speaking through Isaiah God exposes his heart and purpose for mankind. It was here that he said. “He (Jesus) will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair.” And a few verses later he states. “His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring, with plants springing up everywhere.”  His nature is to turn bad things around for good, to give us a new season of life, a new day, and a new beginning.  He is the Creator who has a sustainable nature through the process of resurrection which is a good thing to ponder as we celebrate the blessing of Easter.