Daily Devotional

This past Easter season I was blessed by seeing so many ways God’s people joined together to support and encourage one another as a family to provide an opportunity for the community to hear and experience Christ's forgiveness and salvation. It started early on when I was challenged by why we would do our Easter Walkthrough. Was it worth the amount of time, money, and effort that goes into building and preparing it?

The question took me back to days of directing large choir musicals and the experience those brought. Not everyone gets to see how the preparation is just as much a part of the actual outcome. The lives of the people that are participating in how God is working in their own individual experiences and the work that is going on in their lives through the music was a story in itself; including the building of the sets and the people involved in those. I was thankful for the prodding of this individual because it caused me to think back on those times and what God did...

Immediately, on the first day after the encounter with this question, one of the station builders called me so excited to tell me a God story that had happened in providing some of the materials that we needed. Another day someone showed up just to pin curtains together so that the openings of all the individual curtains would be closed. She had many other very creative gifts and yet was willing to come and fulfill a need for pinning curtains. During that time I had a question about how to make one of the stations more “Creative.” Because she was there and had that gift she was able to help me. Another gal came and edited some of the materials that were used and because she was there and the need arose for someone to come help with some of the building, she called her husband and he came in and helped. All the people that provided the help to set up or to tear down…None of these were necessarily included in the count of how many went through the walkthrough but they were involved in the story. On Sunday one of those people told me how excited they were that they got to help with the teardown! It’s not easy work, it’s not something you get praise and glory for but it is help that is needed. She felt so privileged to have gotten to do it and had such a great time doing it all together with the group.

As I read the account of Nebuchadnezzar and how he had looked upon everything he had built and had such pride, I thought about how we could be so boastful about this thing we were building…I was excited to have been challenged from the beginning to see and be reminded…It wasn't all about the project, it was about the people and the hearts that were being touched and the community that was bonding together all for "The Names of Jesus."

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