My husband and I just finished filling the last of the multi-colored eggs for the big Easter egg hunt at our home. Eggs filled with tiny chocolate kisses, fruity candies, chewing gum, and prizes. It is one of my favorite days of the year because today, the victory has begun.
I’ve always loved the day before Easter. Like the middle of a football game, when my team is winning, and I see the strength in the players, the sweat of their backs, the fruits of their labor, and the smell of victory resonating through the stands. It’s like the victory of Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown Winner at the Belmont Stakes, when no horse could possibly ever catch-up to him. The sounds of the fans astonished, amazed, over-whelmed by his unnatural/natural ability to out-run the fastest race horses by not a nose but 30 lengths.
Yes, today, Jesus descended into Hell, snatched the keys of death from the hands of Satan, witnessed to lost souls held captive there, and returned to earth for His resurrection.
1 Peter 3:18-20
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.19 After being made alive, He went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water…”
At the age of 8, as most little girls do, I imagined being rescued by a handsome knight in shining armor from the hands of the evil dragon. My castle was a bright yellow play house my dad built for me in our backyard. The dragon, large in size with pointed teeth and fiery breath, was the cottonwood tree hovering over it. The battle would be fierce; but, my knight would win, chop the head of the dragon off, and scale the side of my castle to release me. We would ride off into the setting sun on a white horse named “Majesty.”
And although it was a childlike feeling of security, value, and worth, for me it felt real. The reality of today is our Jesus is that knight I imagined so many years ago, fighting valiantly for you and for me.
Rejoice knowing because of Christ, death has lost its sting. Because of His victory, we have a place in Eternity with Him. Because of His battle over sin and death, we live in the winner’s circle.
