“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

1 Peter 1:3 

When I was young my parents would hide little chocolate eggs for my siblings and I to find instead of our real died eggs. I imagine the thought was that if they forgot about a chocolate egg it wouldn’t stink of the house, but finding a melted chocolate egg a month later melted into the couch might have made them regret their decision. Our world isn’t so different from a young Austin looking for chocolate eggs. Everywhere people are looking for hope, for something to trust in, and maybe even someone to save them. They are looking high and low for these little bits of milk chocolate hope.

My mentor Rick McCorkindale always asked, “What’s your next vine your swinging for” referring to the next thing, or break, or excitement that you can be looking forward to. Even as Christians we need and crave hope. Peter is talking about a living hope, an expectation rather than wishful thinking. We as Christians know, and each Easter remind ourselves that, Jesus died on the cross, and then was raised back to life three days later. That’s our eternal hope, that’s our vine that we are swinging for in this life. It’s great to have other vines, smaller wishful hopes or plans, but our big vine is our living hope in Jesus Christ.

As I look forward to hiding eggs for my boys to find for Easter this year, I like to think of how God hides those little bits of hope that points toward his death and resurrection that we can find in every day life. If we stopped each evening and thought about how God showed this living hope to us, how He pointed to how much He loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us. How much would we see? Would we be like my three year old who I know will look meticulously through everyplace in the house if it means more chocolate, or will we look like my one year old who won’t really understand and won’t look very hard. As we look forward to Easter weekend, I pray that we can spend time looking at the living hope, the vine that we cling onto, and look at the many little bits of hope God uses to remind us of His love.

Pray: Dear Lord, thank you so much for your faithfulness. I pray that we can recognize all the little bits of hope that you use to point us back to you. Be with us this season and help us to slow down, and recognize your love, your faithfulness and the living hope that you give us. In your precious and holy name, Amen.

-Austin Christianson

Shepherding and Worship Pastor