April 18 We’re two days from Easter and Wayne and I keep being reminded of Easter in Ethiopia last year, the day we met Kalkidan. The weather was very much like this: cool in the mornings, warm in the afternoon. The trees were flowered. The day was clear and bright. We arrived in Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Orthodox Easter Sunday morning (Easter is on a different date in Ethiopia, so it was May). When we arrived, celebrations were in progress. People were roaming around in the streets, visiting homes, families gathered in the yards, kids playing. The Ethiopians fast from all meat for 40 days before Easter, so Easter dinner is a big feast. As we drove for 40 minutes through winding streets, up and down hills, through endless neighborhoods, I started realizing that there were big piles of carcasses in the yards. They weren’t just EATING meat for Easter; they were slaughtering it. Right there on the front lawn. Goats, cows, chickens. We saw kids playing with a cow head, poking it with sticks. I was so nauseated. But what a visual, visceral reminder to me that blood and sacrifice accompany Easter. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there is no sacrifice for sins. I don’t understand that. It doesn’t really make sense to those of us in “developed” countries. But people throughout time all over the world have known it somehow. Desperate people and whole cultures have practiced animal and human sacrifice to somehow appease the gods. The God of the Bible always made it clear that human sacrifice was wrong: the Israelites were to sacrifice animals. But a human sacrifice ultimately had to be made, so our God sacrificed himself. Hallelujah! What A Savior. Easter Sunday a year ago, we began a covenant with Kalkidan. Kalkidan’s name means “covenant, promise, or word” in Amharic. It seems very fitting that we first met Kalkidan on Easter Sunday – a day of covenant, a day of promise – because of the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection was the promise God had made, that death would die. Kalkidan came to us because of a death, but God is bringing new life out of that death. Just like we got a new life through Jesus, Kalkidan got a new life, too. It’s all about redemption and the tiny part we play in the big story God is telling. And the story continues . . .
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 04:29:24 +0000
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