Pratt: Our weakness is great, but God's power is greater
Nothing we can do will erase or “correct” history. Those who claim otherwise are charlatans, bent on making new tragedies by stoking anger and guilt in as many people as possible.
We cannot erase the wrongs tomorrow that we commit today.
If we deliberately kill someone, but later feel remorse and are sent to prison for committing murder, the primary benefit is that we won't be free to do it again to someone else.
Those of you who read or study human behaviors know that our collectively bad deeds in the past cannot be undone by punishing those innocent in the present. Attitudes change over time, but human nature still struggles with good versus evil.
Angels must be astounded at human arrogance and ignorance in this century, so imbued with its growing powers as represented by space-age technology that it doesn't realize what we think we know will soon disappear.
“Soon” is a relative term that we do not have the ability to count — it could be 10 days or 10,000 years in God's eternal calendar. Meanwhile, we are well on our way to self-destruction. Wisdom tells us there is an old, old book that tells us the story.
The plan was made not by mankind, but by our Creator, who loved us enough even at our worst to offer us the gift of redemption, wholly undeserved, according to biblical teachings and prophecy.
Believers will mark that solemn rescue of humanity at Easter. And many will join in the Resurrection celebration with little understanding of its meaning, yes even some church members who identify themselves as Christians at Christmas and at Easter.
Others will note the traditions with little thought or interest. We are free to do that.
Hiding Easter eggs for children to hunt is a tradition that came out of both secular and sacred teachings. And to think, a rabbit delivers the eggs, most of them candy. Oh my, I'll leave it to you to make the connection with how we do try to make a difficult truth palatable to ourselves as well as to our children.
God didn't promise us redemption from our sins because we weren't so bad, after all. No, he loved us so much even in the midst of our badness that he offered to defeat Evil for all eternity that we might be joined forever with a power impossible for us to fully comprehend in our human state.
Not everyone will accept this gift of eternal life. Why then, did God give us choice at such an outrageous price — death of the Perfect at the hands of imperfect humans? This great mystery of Father, Son and Holy Spirit will not be fully revealed until the Judgment, a matter of prophecy that hints of far greater wonders than anything we can envision as humans.
Our weakness is great, but God's power is greater.
Today, we do not live in that three-year period when Jesus, the Christ, walked and taught those who would listen. They saw miracles of healing, even life restored, storms quieted. Saul, the primary persecutor of Jesus followers, who had vowed to stamp out what he sincerely believed to be false, later became the builder of the church.
He was stricken with blindness so that he could see beyond his own cultural binding.
God renamed him Paul, the great missionary planter of churches.
He was not to deny the religious history he knew so well, but prepared by his heritage for communicating the rest of the story as God gave him a vision for all humanity.
Why talk about Easter today? People are worried about death during a pandemic, not recognizing it walks side by side with us every day.
This week, read the 15th Chapter of I Corinthians, written by Paul to encourage and teach those who want to know whether a believer will live again after death.
Beth Pratt retired after 25 years as the religion editor of the Avalanche-Journal.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Pratt: Our weakness is great, but God's power is greater
