The Cross

When Jesus was talking to his friends about what would happen to him in the days leading up to his death, he said, "unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives."

I find that Jesus often speaks in these kinds of stories when he's trying to help people understand a big idea. That Jesus would die, and for a very good purpose, is certainly a very big idea, even for us. Sometimes I do not see the goodness on the other side of loss. In the moment of losing something - a dream, an expectation, a relationship, or something beautiful in our lives - it's hard to see any good at all. Jesus gets it. He knows how hard it can be, and he enters in with us. The seeds of our lives, buried as they may be, are made to sprout, it seems. Through the hard moments life breaks through. I don't understand how, but I know who. Jesus is here turning our sorrow into gladness and he loves to make all things new. Welcome to Easter, where both the cross and the resurrection have hope for us, too.