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But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 15:57 (NLT)

Spring is a time filled with anticipation and promise of new life.

I was glad that the first “first” holiday without my husband was Easter. Weighed down with the heaviness of grief, I needed to be surrounded by my family as we celebrated the hope that we have through Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead.

Standing in the church that Sunday singing all the Easter classics that proclaim His victory over death filled my heart with joy unspeakable. I needed to look death in the eye so to speak and say, “You don’t get the last word!”

Oh, how I am grateful for the promises of Easter!

Before we can celebrate Easter Sunday, though, we must first endure Good Friday.

How the disciples must have felt confused as they watched their friend hang on a cross. All their hopes for a savior to rescue them from the bondage of the empirical reign of Rome seemed useless. It seemed as though the whole plan had failed.

We can all relate to the disciple’s dilemma. I too sat at my husband’s bedside watching him fade away and then into glory as he took his last breath. I didn’t (and still don’t) understand God’s plan. But I trust it.

The disciples didn’t realize it but Christ’s death was the plan.

We needed a spotless sacrificial lamb whose blood would cleanse us from all of our sins once and for all not just once a year each year. To those who would believe in Him and the work on the cross, forgiveness of sins was a gift from God. Christ’s death was the bridge connecting us with our heavenly Father in an intimate relationship that was intended from the beginning.

And then came Easter Sunday!

The tomb was empty and Christ was alive!!! He had defeated death once and for all.

The story of the cross and the empty tomb gives me hope and assurance. As one of my favorite hymns says, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow”. It’s the reason I could celebrate that first Easter without my husband. I rested in the promise that this world with all its hardships including death is not the end.

Because of Easter…I will see Vic again.

Dear sisters, because Good Friday’s grave is empty on Sunday, we can face tomorrow with all of its trials, heartaches, and the death of our husbands. Death has been defeated. It may have won a battle here and there taking our husbands as casualties but, praise God, because of Easter, death does not win the war.

Father, help us to rest in the hope that is found only in Jesus. Thank you for the forgiveness of sins and the assurance that because of Resurrection Sunday we can hold to the promise that we will see our beloved husbands again.