Spring and Easter invoke many images.
Spring is the emergence of life in the midst of the cold, drab and seemingly endless grip of winter.
Brown turns to green. Bare limbs yield to buds, leaves, blossoms and eventually fruit.
In the human soul, there is expectation, hope and promise of better days ahead. Sunshine, warmth and the prospect that, once again, a little effort coupled with the mighty effects of spring will, once again, produce a bounty.
Our hands kept clean and dry all winter cannot wait to be immersed in dirt that will once again return us to our primal roots. The smells and sounds revive our spirits, and we cannot wait to see all that will happen around us.
Easter marks the most colossal happening in all the history of mankind.
We all know life and we have seen death. The contrast, much like the dead of winter and the warmth of spring, are etched into our being.
We easily accept the reality of spring and all it brings. We know by experience that winter will not last forever.
Death is different. There is a dark hopelessness.
We know it is coming to us and to those around us that we hold dear. Generally, we do everything we can to deflect every thought of it.
Jesus Christ was the most alive person ever. The people who followed him daily watched him vanquish sickness, lameness, impossible situations, and yes, even death could not hold those whom Jesus sought to release from it.
Yet, there came a day when Jesus himself was being led to death. It was unthinkable.
Even those who were instigating this awful tragedy must have thought that if this man, this Jesus, was who he said he was, the ultimate proof would be that they could not kill him.
Death came. The life-blood poured out of Jesus, and he was as dead as anybody ever was.
Death brings burial. Jesus was sealed in a massive stone tomb—impregnable.
Yet, as spring comes and breaks the hold of winter, the power of Almighty God came and, first of all, broke open that impregnable tomb and, next, overcame the power of death and brought Jesus back to life in true resurrection power.
Jesus’ resurrection changed everything. Death no longer rules. Oh, there will be temporary wins, but death cannot hold those who truly belong to God through a vibrant relationship with his son Jesus Christ.
There is new hope. Jesus Christ was dead and now he lives forever.
As spring pushes back winter and brings new hope, so the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the hope of all mankind.
All other leaders of religious movements are dead — Buddha, Muhammad and others — but Jesus is alive.
He is sitting by his father’s side in heaven waiting to come back for his own.
Truly, that is the miracle that we celebrated yesterday and will forever.

Dan Puckett works with road team operations at Life Action Ministries in Buchanan, Michigan.