God—always forgiving; always making a way. Since the beginning of time, man was always sinning and God’s faithfulness always found a way for man to be reconciled to the Father, but it came with a price. After God parted the Red Sea and delivered his people from Egypt, the people forgot and began grumbling against their deliverer, despite His deity. It was then that God sent fiery serpents among them with deadly consequences. After many died, the Hebrews repented and asked Moses to pray to God for them.

The Almighty instructed Moses exactly what to do. “So, Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, and so it was if a serpent had bitten anyone when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.” Numbers 21:9. And it was thus, God made a way for them to live, but they must look upon God and His solution for their life.

I was eleven when my sins confronted me. I had gone to bed for the night and, with my head resting on my pillow, I stared out the window to the sky above. I had never seen one quite like it. The stars shone brighter, the moon beamed, and the sky glowed with, what I realize now was, the Glory of God. The majesty of His creation pierced my heart, and instantly, I knew I was a sinner. I desperately needed to repent and ask forgiveness. I felt His presence and called out to Him, and in a heartbeat, I was changed. The price for my wickedness had been paid two thousand years ago and I had just accepted the free gift of eternal life that Jesus paid for with a precious price.

John 3:14-15 tells us “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

It’s at Easter that we remember the road that Jesus walked and the cross He bore for our (my) sins. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever (me) believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Some people don’t want to think about the price of sin, but His Word reminds us of the mission of Jesus. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:17

What if I had ignored the sky, ignored my feelings of shame, and refused to call upon Jesus for forgiveness? The answer to that is in the next verse, John 3:18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

What if I thought that maybe I could do enough or be good enough to go to heaven? In case I had any doubt, Jesus explains in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

So, this Easter Sunday, I am thankful that God made a way for me by sending His Son to die in my place. I am thankful that on a starry night I could receive forgiveness and life when I looked up to Jesus and repented.

With all my love, may the blessed hope we have in Jesus be yours this Easter.