April Showers Bring....

Dear fellow redeemed Brothers and Sisters,

April showers bring… I was thinking of this recently when I went to have a blood test, and the nurse who was taking my blood sample and I were making small talk. She was mentioning how she didn’t like the spring because that meant that her dog would be tracking mud into the house on her clean floors. There are always two ways of looking at things – either the positive way or the negative way. She wasn’t thinking about the beautiful blooming flowers it would bring, or the bright green grass it would restore. Instead it was only about the mess that she would have to clean up.

By the time that you are reading this, we will be in the midst of Holy Week. We could focus on the negative, like extra services that we need to attend, or thinking of the suffering and pain of Jesus, or the sins that caused Jesus’ suffering, and the terrible Jewish leaders and soldiers that inflicted this suffering.

…Bring May flowers. What we really need to focus on is the love that moved Jesus to do all this for us, and the gift of grace that He gives us so freely, and the freedom from sin, death, and hell which He provides for us, and the gift of new life that He grants us. Just as spring is the reminder of new life, so rain should also be the reminder of the washing away of our sins. Just as the rain washes away the dirt and salt left over from the winter, so does our Baptism wash away the original sin left over from Adam and Eve, and the sin that was committed before our Baptism. It places the beauty of the Holy Spirit’s presence into our lives, creating faith in our hearts. New life in us has begun.

This is what Holy Week and Easter are really all about, the One who died, was laid in a tomb, and then got out, all for us! Have a blessed Holy Week and Resurrection season!

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Paul Pett