Celebrate Good Friday and Easter by taking a few tips from the original Passover quarantine
I received this today from my granddaughter Megan along with a happy Good Friday greeting. Perhaps she won't melt your heart in the same way she does mine, but I'm sure you have little ones in your life you'd also move Heaven and Earth for.
In many ways the story of Passover is really a story about family.
As we celebrate Easter weekend I was thinking about how the original Passover families were instructed to go into their own homes (quarantine), pray and mark their door with the blood of a lamb/ram. What many don't realize is in ancient Egypt the lamb was one of the most revered Gods called "khnum", worshipped as the creator of all (how ironic). Sheep were considered holy and not slain as other livestock. To take the life of a lamb and place its blood on your doorpost would have been the most offensive act of defiance and abomination the Hebrews could have possibly partaken in.
I can't imagine the anguish they felt. A line of faith had been drawn. The question was which God were they going to serve?
If they dared believe God was real and follow his instructions, they and their entire household would be saved. If they did not follow God's command they risked losing their firstborn family members to the judgment pharaoh himself ordered upon the people. God was their only hope but if they followed Moses' instructions and God did not show up, the Egyptians would slaughter their entire household, knowing exactly which doors had the blood of the lamb marking them.
It was a family decision and family commitment. Was God really, real?
They were in so much distress they fasted for 3 days before the Sadar meal then they partook in an all-night prayer vigil. God was indeed real. He met them in their homes, with their families as they dared to act in direct defiance of the belief systems of the day to submit their household under the protective covering of the Lord.
As you celebrate this Passover quarantined in your home with your family, remember the whole Easter story, from Passover to The Resurrection, and what it means for you and your family. Are there "gods" that have snuck into your home and distracted you from the things that matter most? Are you under bondage to circumstances out-of-your control? Do you feel like a slave to the daily grind of life?
This Easter, consider lessons from history and the freedom God has made available to anyone who will believe He is God. Perhaps the hidden gift this year is the focus isolation provides to help us reset our priorities on our families, to discover how to pray together and to resubmit our lives and homes under the protective love and power of our risen Lord and Savior.
Blessings this Easter and always,
Deanna
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