oh the things that cause us to pause.

It is interesting how God created memory. I'm sure there are some people who *claim* to remember their own birth, but overall, longterm memory takes a while. I remember my brother's birth, and I was still 4. But it's vague and spotted memories at ages 4 and 5 where it starts for me. Now that I'm a parent, I'm believing that God did this, in part, as a grace to parents.
The last two Easter seasons have been relatively simple. RM was a seven month old chub-a-lub for the first one, and last year, it was pretty much about managing allergic reactions and keeping the pregnant mommas cool enough, but this year, it's different. Maybe it's because he's two and a half. Maybe it's because I realized, hey, I could read the Children's Bible to him and explain what Jesus did for us. And he asks questions. And requests the Bible stories over the other options. Which might have even had more impact on my own faith than the Tenebrae Service in preparation for Resurrection Sunday. No matter how it happens, i'm grateful for a renewed opportunity to reflect on the greatest moment in history.

From Oswald Chambers:

THE COLLISION OF GOD AND SIN



"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." 1 Peter 2:24

The Cross of Jesus is the revelation of God's judgment on sin. Never tolerate the idea of martyrdom about the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Cross was a superb triumph in which the foundations of hell were shaken. There is nothing more certain in Time or Eternity than what Jesus Christ did on the Cross: He switched the whole of the human race back into a right relationship with God. He made Redemption the basis of human life, that is, He made a way for every son of man to get into communion with God.

The Cross did not happen to Jesus: He came on purpose for it. He is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." The whole meaning of the Incarnation is the Cross. Beware of separating God manifest in the flesh from the Son becoming sin. The Incarnation was for the purpose of Redemption. God became incarnate for the purpose of putting away sin; not for the purpose of Self-realization. The Cross is the centre of Time and of Eternity, the answer to the enigmas of both.

The Cross is not the cross of a man but the Cross of God, and the Cross of God can never be realized in human experience. The Cross is the exhibition of the nature of God, the gateway whereby any individual of the human race can enter into union with God. When we get to the Cross, we do not go through it; we abide in the life to which the Cross is the gateway.

The centre of salvation is the Cross of Jesus, and the reason it is so easy to obtain salvation is because it cost God so much. The Cross is the point where God and sinful man merge with a crash and the way to life is opened - but the crash is on the heart of God.