Easter has come and gone.
I find Holy Week a rollercoaster of emotions thinking on Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, His betrayal and then ultimately the cross. I go from a valley of sorrow thinking of the pain He endured then rise with headiness to the mountain tops when three days later the tomb was empty; we serve a Risen King!
However, Holy Week is just one week out of 52. As Dan asked us last week, how can we show our young people that celebrating life with a living saviour isn’t just a once a year ‘mountain top’ Holy Week or Easter Camp experience.
Mountaintop experiences are great, I’m not going to take on the debating team for the other side of that statement! But even given my limited experience of being on top of mountains there are a few things that I’ve realised. One is that whether you got there under your own steam or piggybacking using someone else’s, there was a great effort on someone’s part to get to the top. Another is that they aren’t conducive for spending a great amount of time on. So, what about the rest of the year, the 51 weeks we live on the fertile plains or in the valleys?
The psalmist exhorts us to continue to look at the mountains and remember that our help, our hope comes from the maker of them. But let’s face it, you can only look at them when you’re not on them after all.
Whether we feel our circumstances are ‘fertile plains’ allowing us to thrive or we are struggling just to cope with the troubles of each day, we draw on the memory of mountain peaks past in the knowledge of God’s present love. Knowing that God in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection has accomplished it all. Nothing we do, nothing done to us, nowhere we are, can separate us from the love of God and we rest in our loving Creator and Saviour, Maker of All Things.
Colleen
144 Sawyers Arms Road
Christchurch, New Zealand
+64 3 352 4227