Easter

I love Timberland boots and clothes. For years now I’ve had a pair of Timberland boots. When my old ones finally came to the end of their life, I bought another pair. I wear them a lot. So much so, that one of the laces wore out, so last week I went online to buy new laces. I went to the Timberland online store because I wanted Timberland laces and not something passed off as Timberland laces! Sad, but true! I ordered one pair of Timberland boot laces. I ordered nothing else. I’m sure you can all picture a pair of new bootlaces, wrapped in that little piece of paper that is holding them together. I hope so. The laces duly arrived a few days later in a lovely Timberland box. Impressive! But here’s the thing: one pair of boot laces came in a Timberland box that measured 20cm x 15cm x 14cm. I know it was that big because I measured in to write this blog! Did you get that? One pair of bootlaces came in a box that measure 20cm x 15 cm x 14cm! They were literally rattling around in the box. There was no padding, no bubble wrap, no tissue paper. Just one pair of bootlaces in a box that measured 20cm x 15 cm x 14cm! They could have come in a an ordinary envelope. A Jiffy bag. But no, they came in a huge box. Maybe Timberland are so proud of their brand that they want everyone to see to name on the box! I’m pleased to know that my laces are genuine Timberland laces, but a box that size for one pair of laces. Really? God could have made a far more dramatic Easter entrance. But he chose a King on a donkey. And nobody spotted it! Well, maybe some people did for a moment. But pretty soon they’d forgotten. And then a trial. And a beating. And a crucifixion. I’m sure he could have chosen a great bolt of lightening. He could simply have obliterated his enemies. He could have done something so dramatic that everyone would have know who he was and everyone would have bowed and worshipped him. Couldn’t he? Maybe. But he did something far more important. He chose the way of self-sacrificial love. He showed that at the centre of the universe is self-sacrificial love. The self giving of the Son of God. Because he loves us. Because he loves. Because he loves us. And maybe, mostly, we don’t notice. And when we do, we quickly forget. On the cross, he was mocked. Nobody noticed what was really going on. The world was being transformed by self-sacrificial love. That’s what was really going on. No impressive branding going on there! His resurrection was impressive! Nobody before or since has done that! And yet, still, we miss it. Or choose to ignore it. Or find a way round it, a way to explain it away. When I ordered Timberland boot laces, I wasn’t expecting them to come in a box that measured 20cm x 15 cm x 14cm. Maybe, we miss the truth of Easter, because we’re not quite expecting the God we find in the Easter story. Thing is, he wants to be found. That’s precisely why he came. So, maybe we would do well to let the truth of the Easter story speak to us. To let God meet us in his self-sacrificial love, the love without the branding, the love that reaches to you and me and invites us into the bigger and better story of God’s great and magnificent love. Happy Easter!