Wesley Church

People Blessing People

Daily Devotional April 13

With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. -Acts 4:33, NRSV

I love Peanut Butter M&M’s. Not Peanut M&Ms, or mint-flavored M&M’s, or those M&M’s with the little pretzel pieces inside. Not Reese’s Pieces (though I certainly wouldn’t say “no” to those either), but Peanut Butter M&M’s. Admittedly, I’m a fan of all things peanut butter & chocolate (ice cream, cakes, pies, cupcakes), but there is something special about Peanut Butter M&Ms. They’re delicious and creamy and wonderful.

I discovered this love for Peanut Butter M&M’s several years — several Easters — ago. On a whim, I picked up a bag of Easter-edition, egg-shaped Peanut Butter M&M’s. They were sinfully delicious, especially for a candy produced during the season of Lent. The egg-shaped Peanut Butter M&M’s were a little bit larger than the regular Peanut Butter M&M’s, which meant they were filled with that much more delicious, creamy, peanut-buttery goodness.

I gobbled up the whole bag before Easter even arrived. And so, on the day after Easter, I stopped at a local store — a store that had, just a few days earlier, boasted entire aisles dedicated to Easter candy — to see if I could pick up a couple more bags of those Easter-edition, egg-shaped Peanut Butter M&M’s. Surely, there would be some bags left over, right? Maybe I could even get them on sale!

So imagine my surprise when I walked into my local store and found that not only the Easter-edition egg-shaped Peanut Butter M&M’s were gone, but all the Easter-themed candy was gone. I actually asked one of the store clerks if they had any Easter candy left in the store. He seemed confused. “No,” he said. “Easter is done.”

Easter is done?!? While the Church was just beginning its celebration of the several-weeks-long season of Easter, the rest of the world was altogether finished with the event. Done. Easter is done. Throw away the Easter grass, gobble up the jelly beans, and scratch your head wondering where that last as-yet-undiscovered egg from the Easter egg hunt ended up. Pack it away, because Easter — complete with special edition egg-shaped Peanut Butter M&M’s — is done.

That may be the way things are in the world… but not in the church. Our celebration of Easter Sunday is just beginning! As a community of faith, we celebrate several weeks of a season of Easter (known as “The Great Fifty Days”). The good news of Easter — He is risen! He is risen indeed! Because he lives, we also shall live! – can’t be contained to one day. This good news is so good that we keep the celebration going for fifty days!

Or maybe even more than fifty. After all, we as Christians have been called “Easter people.” The good news of Easter has significance for our lives every single day, not just in the “season of Easter.” So today, on this second day of the season of Easter, take some time to reflect on the difference that Easter’s good news makes in your daily life. And then, in joyful response, live out that good news in a way that makes a difference for someone else. That’s who we are, right? People blessing people… people who are inspired and empowered to be a blessing because we first have known the blessing of Easter’s empty tomb.

Easter isn’t done yet. I’m not sure it ever has to be. So keep it going, church… the news is just too good to limit to one single day.

Happy Easter, friends — and while we’re thinking of “good news,”
let’s call to mind some other good news:

Our God is bigger than coronavirus. 
Our vision is bigger than coronavirus, too. 
We are people blessing people. 
We are Wesley Church.   

Blessings,

Pastor Candy

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