“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” Prov. 17:22
It was love at first sight. She stood out from everything around her, wearing a three-strand pearl chocker, with matching headband circling her long satin ears and a sparkling belt topped with a glistening medallion. Her dress was a delicate pink, with lace bodice and sheer border embroidered with more pearls, interspersed with dainty rosettes. Accessories completing her outfit included a bejeweled handbag and white button-up shoes. Other Easter bunnies, baskets, and decorations lined the aisles, as the store had gone out marking the Lenten season and the approach of spring, but this grand dame had to come home with me, after first winning the approval of my shopping companion. Later, after arriving back home, her husband could not get over how much fun two octogenarians were having “playing with a doll!” Laughter flowed of course, as every detail had to be examined once again. We admired her glamorous long black eyelashes and long white whiskers (well, maybe these are not so glamorous). And what shall I name her? How about Glama Josie? My niece was less enthusiastic about my purchase, saying, “Just what you need-more stuff!” Yet I think she’s the perfect matriarch for the rest of my little Easter bunny family. My grandchildren have all grown up, but obviously I haven’t. Each time I pass by Glama Josie perched on a chair, surrounded by her “grandchildren”, she makes me smile, and I have no second thoughts.
It was love at first sight. Jesus saw me from eternity, “searched me”, “knew me”, and loved me (Ps. 139). Glama Josie has found a place in my home, and during this past Easter season, while the world celebrated meaningless pagan symbols of the Spring equinox, it is so much more meaningful to celebrate that I have welcomed Christ to come and “dwell in my heart through faith” (Ep. 3:17). The paradox of life amidst death and sorrow melded with joy defined the Easter season for Christians. I celebrated both the sadness of Christ’s sacrifice, without which I would still be lost in the darkness of sin and under my own death sentence, but also the joy of His resurrection because His death on the cross was not the end, but the beginning of new life eternal and the hope of heaven when this life is done.
Charles Spurgeon, in his August 23 devotional from Morning and Evening, writes: “That Christ may dwell; not that He may call upon you sometimes, as a casual visitor may stay overnight, but that He may dwell, that Jesus may become Lord and become the permanent resident of your inmost being, never to leave again… Observe the words- ‘that he may dwell in your heart,’ the best room in the house.”
So, the heart can be merry during Lenten season and beyond. For worship is not just meditation or introspection, but joyful praise and celebration of Who God is, and what He means to His people. “And this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us” (1 Jn. 3:24).