Tell me, who doesn’t like a rag to riches story? It might bring a tear to your eyes. I want to share a little bit about a well-known musical, “Annie.”
This story is about a dirt-poor orphan girl named Annie. She is a beautiful little girl full of mischief who clings to the hope of finding her biological parents. In her possession is half of a locket belonging to her parents, and she hopes with all her heart to be reunited with them, who have the other half of the locket. During her quest to find her parents, a wealthy man takes a liking to Annie and lets her spend time in his mansion. *Spoiler alert* Annie finds out that her biological parents perished in a tragic fire. But not all hope is lost. The wealthy man grew to love Annie and asked her if he could adopt her so they could become a family and so it was.
I suppose you’re wondering, “What does Annie’s story have to do with Easter?” And I would respond, “Absolutely everything!” Easter encompasses hope for all humanity — bringing hope to the hopeless. Did you know in a spiritual sense, we are all orphaned? We search for that one relationship on this earth to complete us, looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. Maybe if we work harder, strive harder, and believe with all of our power, love and acceptance will magically appear. Yet according to scripture, true fulfillment can only be found above from our Creator. Only He truly knows us. He knows our heart, thoughts, intentions, and motivations. So what’s the problem? It stems at our conception, we are born with a plague called sin. This sin causes a huge impassable crevasse between us and our God. Unfortunately, the result of sin in our lives brings death — not just a physical death but also a spiritual one. Yet, there is hope because God devised a plan to bring us back to life so we may experience true love, joy, and peace. The joy of Easter surrounds the events of the last days of Jesus who paid our penalty for our sin that we may be reunited with our heavenly Father and our risen Savior Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son.
Ephesians 1:7 states, “In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”
Yet there is even another miracle, God has accepted full payment of our sin debt, so we can live in harmony with the One True God, Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sins, God our Father, before this world was created, decided to adopt His children to be residents in His glorious kingdom forever — not based on merit for we could never earn our way to His acceptance but only based on faith. A realization that we are dirt-poor orphans in this world of sin with only one option available to know our God and that is by placing our faith in the saving grace of God’s one and only Son to be allowed to be reunited with our heavenly Father. Faith is the only way to initiate the adoption process and spend an eternity with your loving heavenly Father whose love knows no bounds. Yet the story gets even better: True believers will also have an entire heavenly family to enjoy life with during our eternity with our One True God. A family united, who will love and accept you just the way are, created in the image of God.
I love this story!
So tell me, do you like a rag to riches story? This story could be your story, if you look at it through the perspective of an orphan who finds a place called home filled with love. For Easter makes a way for all of us to find a place where we are meant to abode. A place called home filled with love — just like Annie.
As Annie sings, “The Sun will come out, tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar, that tomorrow there will be Sun!”
HAPPY EASTER!
Ephesians 1:3-10
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Discussions to make God known 