THE AWAKENING

 By Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

Chocolate candies and colored eggs, flowery bonnets and fluffy bunnies all signify the awakening of spring and the celebration of new life that Easter represents. Is there another reason for Easter’s existence besides the chocolate candies and new clothes in this age-old tradition? 

Throughout the centuries, man knew there was a supreme being. Ancient Rome worshiped numerous gods and goddesses.

 

So, where did the separation from man and God begin? Man’s fall from grace began when Adam and Eve believed the devil and not God. Obeying the evil one and not God whom they knew loved them. 

The beginning of man's salvation from the evil one began in Genesis 3:15, "He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" which prophesies the "seed of the woman" (Jesus) and the "seed of the serpent" (Satan and his followers), where Jesus will triumph, but not without suffering first. Isaiah 7:14 (NKJV and subsequent verses)  explains this and is reverberated in Matthew 1:23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel."  

Christ Jesus came as a babe in the manger and walked the earth, feeling the heat beneath his sandals and the hunger pains within his belly. He healed the maimed and the sick, teaching them about His Father, to keep His commandments, and to "Love one another as I have loved you." (John 13:34) Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament scriptures about His coming and being the sacrificial lamb in atonement for our sins. "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament scriptures pertaining to His coming and being the sacrificial lamb in atonement for our sins. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus foresaw his trials, persecution, and death as told in Luke 9:22 "The Son of God must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day." 

Tried by Pilate, Jesus was scourged and rejected by the people he'd come to save. Mocked and beaten with the cat of nine tails, He stumbled up those stone steps, blood dripping down his face because of the crown of thorns that dug pit marks into his brow. Then his hands and feet were nailed with spikes to that ugly wooden cross. He could have called to His Father and an army of angels would rescue Him—He did not because of His love for us. Bearing the humiliation and a criminal's execution, He fulfilled the scriptures.  

In agape love, Jesus cried out from his bloodied cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." (Luke 23:34)

He took our sins upon him—we who were under the sentence of spiritual and physical death, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith, to demonstrate His righteous…" (Romans 3;24,25) 

The greatest miracle of all happened on Easter morning. As told in Luke 24:1-12 On the third day, the women came to the tomb with spices they had prepared. They saw that the stone rolled away from the tomb. They went in and did not find His body, but a man dressed in white. The women shook with fear, but then the angel of the Lord spoke, saying, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; for He is risen, as He said." Jesus Christ appeared to the disciples and many others for forty days. 

"Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations…" Luke 24:46-47

The debilitating agony of illnesses, age, and death have plagued mankind ever since Adam and Eve’s fall. Throughout the countless battles and wars, young soldiers, and old veterans cling to the knowledge that there is a better life beyond the grave. “For God so loved the world that he gave His only beloved Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) Believing Jesus means you will never know the taste of death.

This Easter Sunday, remember the awakening of your life that Easter morning. “Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses…For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.” (Romans 5:14-15) 

There is a new beginning, a new life waiting for every believer. No matter the sin—it is never to late to ask forgiveness. Ask Christ to come into your heart and celebrate your new awakening.  Jesus’ resurrection opened heaven’s gates for us upon that awakening on Easter morning. Savor the spring flowers, the bunnies, and the baskets of candy, and always remember that the greatest gift of all was the resurrection and life ever after God and His Son, Jesus Christ, gave to mankind. 

Esther (McConnell) Meir finds herself in a story-book romance that swirls into a rendezvous with destiny when Eric Erhardt is swept up into Hitler's diabolical war. Eric wages his battle for survival as a rifleman in the 34th Infantry Division traveling up the boot of Italy—. "…of Waltz with Destiny… I was reading Capt. Kimble's words about D-Day… the music I had going started playing "God Bless the USA." Goose bumps popped up all down my arms and legs, and I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes. The message of the Destiny series is even more applicable today than when it was first released…" Debra B. 

An award-winning author, Catherine's inspirational historical romances include Wilted Dandelions, her Destiny series Swept into Destiny, Destiny's Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, and Waltz with Destiny. Her newest book is Love's Final Sunrise. She has two pictorial history books: The Lapeer Area, and Eastern Lapeer Area. Catherine lives in Michigan with her husband of 53 years, her two children and five grandchildren.