The Christian church has just celebrated Easter - a celebration of contrasts, perhaps the greatest of contrasts that impact human existence: death and life. Good Friday and Easter Sunday. And within this contrast is the mystery of renewal, restoration, regeneration, resurrection.
It should not surprise us that God would do this amazing, thing - to bring Jesus Christ out of death into life, for this same contrast, this same principle of regeneration, is deeply imbedded in the world he created: the deadness of a seed is transformed into a living plant; within a cocoon a caterpillar is metamorphosed into a butterfly; the stark, lifeless trees of winter burst forth into life at the coming of spring; and lifeless Australian deserts erupt in a riot of life with the coming of rain.
In Romans 1:19,20 we read: 'what may be known about God is plain ... because God has made it plain ... since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made ... '
When we consider the resurrection of Christ we ought not to ask 'How can this be?' rather we should realize that it could not be otherwise for God is the life-giver. God is the restorer.
Here in this death/resurrection of Easter is the assurance: death is not the end, nor is it greater than God. Here in this death/resurrection is also a challenge to us: have we connected by faith to this Life-giver? Cut off from him we are as the trees of the winter or the sands of the desert. Waiting. Waiting for the coming of life.
God, the life-giver, has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ, his Son, who said: 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even through he dies' (John 11:25); 'whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life ... he has crossed over from death to life' (John 5:24).
Reach out in faith and take life from his hand!