He is risen! Hallelujah!
Thank you, Pastoral staff and worship teams and all the behind the scenes folks who so beautifully led us through this significant Lent season. From the darkest moments of human despair and loss to the most glorious heights of hope and joy, you inspired us to raise our voices in humble gratitude to our Father for His incredible plan to redeem us and give us new life. Oh, give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good!
Easter is incredibly meaningful to me. I enjoy all its sacred traditions and moving celebrations. And to be honest, I even enjoy some of its secular customs.
For example, I love egg hunts.
In fact, I love almost any hunt.
As a child, we entertained ourselves for endless hours playing Huckle, Buckle Beanstalk. Anybody even heard of that look-for-the-button game? I’m showing my age. And how we loved Hide and Seek, especially after dark, lurking in the pole beans. It was simply magical.
Our curious family frequently scoured freshly-plowed fields for ancient Indian arrowheads and relics. We braved post-storm, windy ocean beaches searching for unusual shells. We hiked the trails at Parvin’s to find a variety of flora and fauna. I can still sprawl on my arthritic knees for hours on Sunset Beach collecting Cape May Diamonds just like I did as a kid.
From an early age, I was trained to be an observant hunter—one with no weapon, but with an eye for God’s creative genius and His story.
In Elementary School, I hunted for four-leaf clovers on the little hill behind Elmer School every recess.
Even back then, I loved hunting for just the right gifts for those I love. I still do.
I still enjoy a good hunt for a lost pair of glasses or a misplaced set of keys...an almost daily event in our house. I even like to hunt for the one earring or one sock or one Tupperware lid that always seem to be mysteriously disappearing.
I love scrolling through Pinterest, hunting for new recipes to try for parties and holiday ideas to add to my repertoire.
I love hunting for golf balls in the rough and in the woods. Kenny? Not so much. We don’t golf together anymore...
I love hunting for birds to identify, another pattern learned from my dear family of origin. Now it is just another of my golfing distractions!
I love hunting for bargains. I coupon, I thrift, I make lists and plan menus from circulars, and I shop the sales. Kenny insists I drive 30 miles and spend hours of my time to save a nickel.
I hunt endlessly for charming Bed and Breakfasts and out-of-the-way get-away or vacation spots. I love searching for fun activities to do with my family.
I can easily spend an entire joyous day hunting through a dusty, old, used book store or a library.
I love hunting the internet for new, helpful marriage curricula and funny video clips to share when we teach.
I love searching Scripture, tracing words or themes through its pages. I love to hunt through commentaries to help me understand what I’m reading.
And, quite frankly, I have one favorite search. I really do love seeking God. I want to know Him...so much more than I do.
But to be honest as well as frank, I don’t always do a very good job in that worthy search. I am so easily distracted! I find myself quite impatient, lazy, sporadic, and faithless in my pursuit. I often find myself seeking my Father’s gifts more than I am seeking Him. Instead of just sitting at His feet and basking in His beauty, worshiping Him in spirit and in truth, I find myself filling the air with my whiny complaints and endless petitions or my legalistic acts of service and rituals.
Oh, to always have a Mary’s heart and choose the best thing! For in the quiet, at His feet, my Bible open, my confessions made, my attention fully engaged, my eyes fixed on my Master—I am able to hear His tender voice. And in His Presence, I am transformed. My heart is taught to desire, to seek after the important, urgent things that fill His heart. All other searches, all interesting hunts for the glittering treasures or the vain pursuits of this world, helpful though they may be, they suddenly lose their appeal and fade into the background.
You see, Jesus came to earth for a single purpose. Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” He is on a search and rescue mission, the only “hunt” that really matters in light of eternity, don’t you think?
I was vividly and poignantly reminded of this mission Easter evening as I wept and laughed through the premier of The Chosen, season 2. I hope you saw it. It was magnificent.
Do you remember the scene where Jesus was speaking to the crowd and addressing the shepherd standing in the background? It was a creative retelling of the parable of the good shepherd in Luke 15:3-7, the shepherd who leaves his ninety nine sheep out in the open country and goes out into the night, risking his own life, searching for the one who has gone missing, wandered off. When he finds the one, he joyfully lays it across his shoulders and carries it lovingly home. He then invites his neighbors to come to a feast to celebrate. What a beautiful picture of our true Good Shepherd!
Now, to be honest, in my flesh, this heroic act by this kind herdsman in the story irks me a little. I consider myself, dripping in humility as I am, as one of the crowd, the good, obedient sheep, who gets left to their own devices because of some rebellious, arrogant lamb who selfishly does his own thing. I kind of resent that he so thoughtlessly puts the protector and leader of the flock in danger for a self-centered little joy walk.
But I am missing the whole point. I obviously don’t have the shepherd’s heart. Not yet.
The shepherd in this story loved EACH of his sheep, rebel or saint.
Just like our Good Shepherd does.
So much so, according to the Father’s plan, that He left the splendor of heaven to die a bloody, cruel death on a Roman cross—not as a Shepherd, but as a sacrificial Lamb, slain for the sins of those clueless sheep who think they are righteous and also for those who know they are not. Oh, that we all would see ourselves for who we really are and come to repentance!
So this begs the question: If I am seeking my Father and desiring to know Him, really know His heart and His desires, and if His plan is to send His Son to seek the wandering and lost men and women of this world and to save them by Jesus willingly and cruelly dying in their place to satisfy the judgment against them, what am I doing about it? Looking for seashells? Sneezing in a moldy bookshop? I am appalled at my waste of time! Shouldn’t I join Him?
Now, I am not saying that all these “hunts” of my delight are evil and that I should not clip coupons ever again. But I am saying, dear ones, the time is short. I certainly need to prioritize my resources (my energy, my time, my talents, my money, my gifts, my family) for what My Father considers His urgent purpose, the seeking and saving of those who are lost. And broken. And guilt ridden. And discouraged. And sick. And lonely. And abused. And poor. And powerless. And enslaved. And proud. And despised. And messy. Couldn’t we go on and on?
The Good Shepherd is seeking them all. Just as He sought us.
Shouldn’t I care about them too? Shouldn’t I be pursuing them too? Shouldn’t you?
Who has the Holy Spirit brought to mind this very instant? Be honest. There is someone who needs you to seek after them, to bring them to the Good Shepherd, the One Who laid down His life for them. It is someone who desperately needs to be rescued from himself and the entanglements of this fallen world. It may be hard. It may involve personal sacrifice. It may be ugly. It may be humiliating. Who is it? Can you hear His voice?
The Father promises that He won’t hide. He will be found by those who earnestly, diligently seek Him (Jeremiah 29:13). His own sheep and those who are not yet His. And He will save.
Will you join the Master’s search and rescue mission?
Or find another golf ball?
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon him while he is near (Isaiah 55:6).
—Eileen Hill
*Please be advised that this blog represents the views, opinions and beliefs of the writer and does not necessarily reflect those of our church leadership or denominational affiliation.