Easter Sunday Morning • Little children need lots of help and support. As we grow up, we become more independent. We move from needing our mom and dad for everything to needing them almost never. We seem to think the spiritual world works the same way: we "grow up" from praying all the time to only calling God when we are really, really desperate.

But we were never built to be independent in the spiritual world. Trying to be independent makes us feel like a little boy who wants to "do it himself," but can't seem to figure out how. We cope with our feelings of inadequacy by pretending to have it together and secretly using a lot of childish behaviors to manage our feelings.

The church's answer is we need to stop pretending to be grown-ups. Deep down we are still children. The world is big and scary and God never expected us to face it alone. We still need our Daddy, and he's right here for us. We also have a Mommy and a whole spiritual family. It was never God who kept his distance from us. It was us who told God, "I've got this. Go away. Stop ruining my life!"

Jesus shows us how to be a faithful Son of our heavenly father. He isn't even afraid of death because he trusts his Father to take care of him. The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is an historic fact that gives us hope and new life. It also points us to the future reality when God will raise us from the dead. But the secret of Easter is the present reality that Jesus is Risen: He is with us here and now. Learn to see the Risen Jesus in our everyday life. Look back on your day and say, "Jesus, where were you in my daily life?" You will discover that not only is he with us, but he is also within us. Happy Easter!

(31 Mar 2024)

Going Deeper: What does it mean to say that you can be the best possible grown-up by letting yourself be a Child of God? Do you know someone who did this well?

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