LOOK

We are journeying onward. Time just won’t stand still. February 2024 is about to pass us by and I’m still getting used to writing the year 2024. March winds are barreling toward us. We will celebrate another holiday in 37 days. Our calendar is full of holidays right? Easter falls on March 31st this year. It is earlier than most years. Christmas is a fixed date on our calendar, but Easter is based on the lunar cycles of the Jewish calendar.

Easter is a significant holiday for me. Christians the world over celebrate the fact that our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, broke open His tomb and came back to life and defeated death for all those who would believe in Him. Christmas – His birth and Easter – His resurrection, how can we not spend these days leading up to these holidays in retrospection and reflection?

How to prepare our hearts to truly celebrate all that Easter brings and means?

LOOK! It’s a simple four letter verb. We really don’t think much on the word until a child or grandchild brings a flower or a bug to our attention. “LOOK LaLa, I picked you a flower!” Or “LOOK LaLa, here’s a frog.”

”Again the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look! The Lamb of God! ”“
‭‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭35‬-‭36‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

When John the Baptist told his disciples, “Look,” he wasn’t asking them to glance at Jesus. He was exhorting them to really see Jesus, take Him in, consider Him. It wasn’t a simple request John was making to his two disciples. LOOK! At the exclamation points the writer John the disciple added. Tradition has it that John the disciple was one of the two who heard John the Baptist declare, “LOOK! The Lamb of God.” It was such a declaration spoken with such conviction and emotion, it made the two disciples change life paths and leave John the Baptist and begin to follow Jesus the Messiah.

LOOK! For these next 37 days and counting LOOK! At Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold Him! Take hold of Jesus, hold His hand, walk with Him, learn from Him.

What does LAMB OF GOD mean to you?

When Andrew and John heard John the Baptist declare this statement they knew exactly what was meant. Vivid images of the Temple priest taking an unblemished lamb, placing it on the altar in the Temple, and slicing the lamb’s throat and allowing the blood to flow into the basin, knowing full well the lamb’s blood represented a washing of Israel’s sin and their sin. At this point Andrew and John had no idea they were about to follow the last sacrificial LAMB. That soon no other sacrifice would be needed. In three years time they would watch as Jesus the Lamb of God would shed His blood on a Roman execution post and it would be His blood that would take away the sin of all the world.

That is what we prepare for in these days leading up to Easter.

LOOK!