Easter Story is Proof-Positive: Life Wins!

“The Lord is faithful.” (2 Thessalonians 3:3)

Easter is just a a few weeks away. While it is a season of hope, we live in a world that is full of despair. In our country alone, increasing tensions with Russia, the threat of terrorism, and deep divisions among our lawmakers are enough to make one sick.

Over forty years ago, a young Indiana songwriter was also discouraged, so discouraged about what he saw happening that it helped to throw him in a state of deep and hopeless depression.

Many of my older readers remember those times. Racial tension was tearing our country apart; the Vietnam Conflict was at its peak; and three American heroes, who wanted to see a different America, were all shot down in their prime. I can still remember seeing Dion on television in 1968 singing, Abraham, Martin and John, a song that eulogized the lives of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy, and praised them for the courage they showed.

Against that backdrop, this young, promising songwriter just couldn’t bear the thought of bringing another child in this world. In fact, his wife, then pregnant with their third child, described how they both felt: “Bill and I would talk about the circumstances of this world, and about this new discouragement, and wind up saying, ‘If this world is like this now, what will it be like in fifteen or sixteen years for our baby? What will this child face?’ We were filled with fear and uncertainty.”

That uncertainty turned to endless hope one spring afternoon when Bill’s father provided him with a modern-day parable. Bill had just paved a parking lot next to his office and there in the middle of the newly paved lot stood a tiny blade of green grass. His father showed him that lonely blade of grass, suggesting that it had a direct connection with the hope we have in Christ. His wife later said, “It was confirming a truth that had been pushing its way to the surface of our souls: Life wins! Life wins!”

Well the rest is history. That young Indiana songwriter was none other than Bill Gaither. And it was after his father convinced him that hope is never lost for the Christian that he penned “Because He Lives“, a reminder to us all that hope is never lost for Christians.

Life is difficult and these are dark times in which we live. But we have a gift called salvation that provides light that will show us the way in spite of what may be going on in our world. In fact, Jesus himself said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

That light still shines my friends. And Bill Gaither’s chorus to “Because He Lives” is as true today as it ever was:

Because He lives,

Just because He lives.

Hold on to the promises of God and remember what the Apostle John told us: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17)