“It it finished.”

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.       1 John 4:7-14 (NLT)

It is easy to spend more time today preparing for an Easter Sunday feast or pressing that new dress or ribbon to hold back pretty curls than to take the time to do more than acknowledge the extraordinary price of Friday. “It. is. Finished.”

I will read again Luke 22-23 and John 17-19. I include John 17 because it reminds me that despite the horrific hours that were about to unfold, Jesus never forgot the promised victory that would occur because of His sacrifice and our need for His intercession in the centuries to come.

There are so many emotions today as I meditate on these passages and the love represented in them. No one, no one has ever loved me like Jesus. No one ever will. If I think about how much I love my children and what I would be willing to do for them – that love is only a fraction of how much the Father loves me! How do I show my love for the Father? How do I tap into the depth of that love?

It was in John’s letter to the Church that I found the direction to move. John reminds me that God is love. When I open myself to the LORD, He fills me with who He is and so that means I am filled with His love. And the full expression of His love is in loving others. I can see His love, in all its many facets, when I love others. I see the healing. I see the compassion. I see the forgiveness. I see the encouragement. God’s love is a living thing.

Jesus did it all. There is nothing that I need to do. There is nothing required of me to complete my redemption from sin. Jesus dotted every “i” and crossed ever “t.” I am under no obligation to pay Jesus back for His sacrifice. Loving others and serving them is an opportunity to freely allow His love to flow through me into others and that actually draws me closer to God.

Easter can be a time of a new beginning. If I haven’t spent time with my LORD like my deep down spirit wants to – now is the time to make a change. It can be a time to take a step and begin my day in prayer and end my day with a reading and prayer. And throughout the day, ask the Holy Spirit to keep me open to hear His voice that will direct me to reach out to others with His love.

Through it all – every moment of my life – it’s trials and triumphs – is already ordained to end in victory. Jesus has destroyed death and when the time comes, He will take me home to live with Him in Paradise forever and ever. There is no repayment for that. There is love.

How Great Thou Art sung by Carrie Underwood