This weekend will mark the first time in my life I will not be in a physical church on Easter Sunday. Perhaps like you, I will be attending worship services online, making the most of technology and innovation during these strange and troubling days. But it won’t feel the same.

This is just one more way in which the “new normal” is changing all our lives. We are overwhelmed with daily death totals, ever-changing predictions, and a clouded uncertainty that seems to mount by the hour. Terms like social distancing, self-quarantine, and stay-at-home orders are twisting our lives in ways no one could have predicted just one month ago. These truly are uncharted waters.

The immediate spikes in video conferencing, webinars, and binge watching of streaming services is understandable, but likely not durable should this continue long term. We all know there is something much larger here, something 12 straight hours of Netflix cannot fix. The pandemic is rapidly realigning priorities, and it is reminding us all of the brevity and value of every human life.

These are the days when the world is looking for hope. Easter could not come at a better time.

In Easter we have the reminder that there is a God, and He is in complete control.

We would be mistaken to view Jesus’ death as a miscarriage of justice, or as the story of a good man caught up in a plot beyond his control. He was not a passive bystander, but an obedient servant to His Father’s will, even to the point of a brutal death on a Roman cross. Why? So that all who place their full trust in Him can be forever forgiven and forever free.  This was His mission.

He didn’t come to save the environment, establish political priorities, or make a name for Himself. He came for us, because we are all made in His image, from the very moment of our conception. The God of the universe came for us, his priceless works of art, to save us from a pandemic called sin.

If Jesus were still in the tomb, these few thoughts would be nothing more than empty rhetoric and any faith in Him would be in vain.

But the tomb is empty. Thank God, the tomb is empty.

May you and your family have a blessed Easter.