Sunday has always been my favorite day of the week and Easter is my favorite of all Sundays, which basically means my favorite day of the year. In September, I moved to Melbourne, Australia to spend the year working as an au pair. That means that this Easter looked much different than Easters of the past.It used to look like a morning spent running slides at my home church, followed by the most adorable egg hunt in history, and then an afternoon spent with my family. Knowing that this year I was far away from that same celebration has made me a tad homesick. However, that didn’t stop me from waking up on Easter morning, just as giddy to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus as ever before!
These past seven months in Australia have been a wild ride. I started my au pair adventure living and working with a family that, long story short, fired me without notice and left me scrambling for a back-up plan. This was after spending three months struggling with doubts and temptations like I never experienced until I arrived in Melbourne. It was the day after finally turning to God for help that I was “fired” from my first family and was able to find a new family by the end of that week. I’m telling you, Australia has been a wild ride. Now I’m living with a family who makes me feel loved and even better, I live with a family that is pursuing a relationship with Jesus! God is good! Amen?
So this Easter looked very different. It was a morning spent watching a smaller, but just as cute egg hunt, an afternoon spent in quiet, reflecting on the immense waves of grace that have washed over me time and time again, and an evening spent at my new church in Melbourne, accompanied by my host mom. As I said at the beginning, Easter is my favorite day of the year, but it has very little to do with what events take place or who is there celebrating with me. Why do I love Easter so much? It’s a reminder of the grace offered to us when Jesus rose from the dead. Let me explain what grace looks like, using one of many au pair stories:
In my new host family family I look after a three year old girl and five year old girl. A few weeks ago, they were given a chore list to complete when they come home from school and at first the five year old was so excited to have these new responsibilities, one of which included tidying her room. The excitement lasted until the day after the two girls had spent the night playing in the five year old’s room. It looked as though a bomb had exploded, and when I told her she was responsible for the room and therefore responsible for cleaning it up, she became overwhelmed at the thought of the amount of work which needed to be done.I left her to it, and after some time she called me in for a final check.As I stood in the doorway, I was blown away by how clean it looked.The toys were nowhere in sight.The closet doors were closed, and, from where I stood in the doorway, everything looked good.Then I took a closer look.Under her desk was a huge pile of papers and books.In her bed were toys which had been thrown under the covers.Her closet doors were closed, but, when opened, revealed an avalanche of shoes and clothes.This room was not tidy; it just had the appearance of being tidy.Underneath, it was just as messy as before.
My life can look a lot like this room, and I bet if you took the time to examine yours, you’d realize that yours does too.Life is messy.For the first 18 years of my life, I processed the mess as well as I could, sweeping things to the side and stuffing them into the closet so that I could give the impression that everything was fine.I had life under control, my room was clean.Why would I need anyone’s help?
And then, I realized how difficult it is to clean up your own room.It’s a heavy, endless burden.It was exhausting, and left me bitter and resentful.The reality of my mess would always come tumbling out of hiding.I was so focused on myself, and I thought I had a good hold on it.Let me let you in on a secret:I didn’t.
God saw my mess.He wasn’t fooled by the shiny appearance.He saw my mess and met it with grace.I was responsible for this room and I should be the one responsible for cleaning it. I deserved whatever punishment awaited me for not keeping it tidy. But God loved me too much to watch me struggle, and when I finally invited into that room at the age of 18, He entered my room and instead of simply cleaning it, he gave me a new one and He promised to keep it clean as long as I continued to invite Him into it.
That’s grace. It’s a gift that we don’t deserve. It’s what Jesus gave us on the cross and it’s what I wake up on Easter morning worshipping what Jesus has done regardless of my circumstances. I love the story of the resurrection, and that God loved His creation so much that He couldn’t bear to abandon it to the fate it justly deserved.I love that He chose to enter the mess, and experience all the hurt and pain we feel.I love that He lived completely innocently.I hate that He had to die the lonely and painful death on a cross, but I love that He rose again three days later, victorious!
For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Jesus, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on a cross. Colossian 1:19-20
So let me ask you, how’s your room looking? God loves you and wants to offer this new room, this grace, to you!He’s pleased to enter your mess.So, what’s stopping you from letting him?
Contributed by Joanna
Monday April 18, 2016
Liturgical Year C: Week 21
Liturgical Color: white
Sunday Gospel reading: cEaster4
Fourth Sunday of Easter Sunday