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Yesterday we celebrated Easter.
This particular Easter was significant for me because this Easter I am the same age that Jesus was when he was crucified. He was 33 years old.
This Easter was also particularly significant because this year we are celebrating resurrection life in the face of death. At the moment of this writing, 100,440 people around the world have died from the Coronavirus. What an incredible thing to celebrate the gift of eternal life when all around us is death and disharmony. It makes my celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday more meaningful than it has been in years past. Can you think of anything better to celebrate during this time?
When Christ arose from the grave that Sunday morning almost 2,000 years ago everything changed. Death itself had been conquered.
I love these verses from 1 Corinthians 15:55:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
Or to change it slightly
“Coronavirus is swallowed up in victory.”
“O Coronavirus, where is your victory?
O Coronavirus, where is your sting?”
Paul, the writer of these verses is mocking death! Do you have the audacity to mock death? Do you have the audacity to laugh at the Coronavirus?
On Easter Morning, Christ made a mockery of death.
And because he conquered it on Easter morning, we too can mock death. Because Jesus rose again from the dead, we too will rise from the dead if we put our faith in Him.
On Good Friday, Jesus died the death that we deserved for all the sins we’ve ever committed. And on Easter morning he rose victorious over every single one of them.
But how should what happened on a Sunday almost 2,000 years ago affect how we live on a Monday?
How should our celebration of Christ’s victory on Sunday carry over to the drudgery of a Monday morning? Especially the drudgery of a Monday morning in quarantine?
Does Christ’s victory over death on that Sunday almost 2,000 years ago make any difference to a mom who’s just trying to make it through this Coronavirus pandemic without losing her mind or sprouting too many gray hairs?
Dear friends, it makes all the difference in the world!
Easter Sunday changes everything about motherhood, including mothering during a pandemic. Below I’ve listed 3 ways, thinking about Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday changes the way I’m mothering during this pandemic.
What is that one thing that you are worrying about the most right now? Is it losing a loved one to the virus? Is it the possibility of watching your children suffer in sickness? Is it catching the virus yourself and possibly losing your own life?
These fears are real and they are ever-present, especially now.
But because of Easter Sunday, we do not have to mother another day in fear. If God can take the worst possible occurrence in all of history, the day we crucified our Lord, and bring the best possible good from it then he can take any circumstance you might face and bring the best possible good from it. We can move through this pandemic without fear because Jesus is master over death. Death is perfectly under his control. Romans 8:28 says
And we know that for those who love God all things [including death] work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
If you are in Christ, there is no reason to fear. Death has lost its grip on you. Death does not get the last word.
Some mornings I get up and groan at the prospect of cleaning the house and corralling the children all day long. Again. The monotony of our everyday is wearing on me.
But because of Christ’s victory on Easter morning, I can go about each day doing the monotonous things I do, knowing that the work is actually accomplishing far more than I can see.
If Christ hadn’t risen from the grave what would be the point in doing anything? Why work towards something if you’re just going to die and your work will be forgotten? Why have children if they’re just going to grow up, suffer all their lives, die and that’s all there is? Why serve anyone else, if the only reason to live is to make yourself as happy as you possibly can before you kick the bucket and spend eternity in misery? If Christ hadn’t risen from the grave on Easter Sunday, then life is meaningless and all our work as moms futile.
But Christ did rise from the grave on Easter Sunday.
So now our lives are filled to the brim with eternal purpose. We are working toward a greater glory that awaits us in eternity. Because Christ conquered death for us on Easter Sunday, everything we say and do has an impact on our eternity.
Therefore we do all things in the name of our Risen Lord Jesus (Col 3:17). We change diapers and wipe noses in the name of the Lord Jesus because we know that our children are eternal beings with souls and caring for them physically is a way to care for their eternal souls. We play pretend animals and run pretend races for the umpteenth time in the name of our Risen Lord Jesus because we know this brings our children delight and bringing delight to them delights our Father in heaven. We clean the house, the house that no one will see, in the name of the Risen Lord Jesus, because we want to honor Him by gratefully caring for what God has provided for us.
Because Christ rose from the grave on Easter Sunday, our work as moms, though seemingly monotonous and tiring, is good and meaningful. And when we do it all for the glory of the Risen Jesus, it brings joy and purpose to the monotony.
When Christ died on the cross and then rose again on Easter Sunday he secured forever our relationship with our Creator. We were once separated from God because of our sin, but now because of Easter, our broken relationship has been mended.
What does this mean for me as a mom? It means that when my work seems monotonous and unending, when my children are misbehaving and acting ungrateful, when I am tired beyond what I even thought possible…I can still have great joy because my joy does not come from my circumstances or the people who surround me. It comes from God himself.
Our God is not aloof and impersonal. Our God is extremely personal and supremely enjoyable. And our one purpose in life, and our driving purpose in quarantine, is to glorify and enjoy him forever.
So how does a mom enjoy God?
She enjoys him by getting to know him through his Word. She enjoys him by thanking him for all his many blessings, including the enormous blessing of being mother to her children. She enjoys him by pouring out her heart to him in prayer when she is unsure of what to do and receiving his peace and wisdom in return. She enjoys him when she tells her children about him and what he has done for them. She enjoys him as she serves others knowing that her work, though often unseen and unappreciated, pleases God. She enjoys him by asking him to lovingly carry her through hard and trying times. She enjoys him by spending time in his creation, taking in the beauty of her surroundings knowing that they are all simultaneously shouting his praises. She enjoys him by drawing near to him when she is afraid. She enjoys him by being still (if only for a minute) and remembering that he is God and she is not.
If God did not care so deeply about our joy, he never would have sent his Son to die in our place. He never would’ve raised Jesus from the dead to mend our broken relationship with him.
Because Christ rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, our joy is secured for all eternity because Christ enabled us to enjoy God himself.
When you are feeling tired and spent, when being in quarantine is getting on your last nerve, when your anxiety for the future seems more than you can bear – remember Easter Sunday. Remember who it was that overcame death on that seemingly ordinary Sunday morning. And remember that death did not get the last word in Jesus’s life, and if you are in Him, it will not get the last word in yours either. You can rise victoriously on this ordinary monotonous Monday morning in quarantine because Christ rose victoriously on that glorious Easter morning almost 2,000 years ago.
Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!
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