When God Calls Your Name: An Easter Celebration

Something Special Happened Today

Does anyone know what's special about today? Did anyone eat chocolate for breakfast? My son did — though he wasn't supposed to! But there was a reason we ate chocolate this morning. We don't just normally eat chocolate for breakfast.

Something happened. Jesus came back to life! And it's so exciting. But we need to talk about why — why God wanted this to happen.

The God We Can't See

Can we see God? Not the way you see me, not really. And sometimes when we can't see God, we feel like He's not there because we can't see Him. It's really hard for us to understand that.

We look around and think, "God's not actually there." But you know what? You might think God is hiding, but He's not hiding. He's calling out to us. He wants us to be with Him. That's why He sent Jesus — to die and come back to life.

The Paper Clip Demonstration

Imagine a folded piece of paper with two paper clips on it — one on each section. One paper clip is us. The other is God. He's on the other side, but He's actually right next to us. He wants to be with us. We just think we can't see Him and that He's hiding.

But He's not hiding. He calls out to us by name.

When you hear your name being called and you pull the ends of the paper tight — do you see what happens? The paper clips fly together. They join. They link up.

Because God wants us to be with Him. And that's why He sent Jesus.

All We Need to Do Is Respond

When God calls out to us, all we need to do is respond. We say, "Yes, God." And we get to be together with Him forever — all because of what we celebrate today: Jesus dying and coming back to life, all for us to be with God forever.

Oh heavenly Father, we are so thankful that You want to be with us. You're calling our name. You're yelling out, "I'm here!" Because You sent Jesus so that we would hear You and we could be with You always. All we have to do is say, "Yes, God."

So God, this is us — coming before You saying, "Yes, God, I'm listening," because we know that You want to be with us and You sent Your Son to make that possible.

Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, God, for all Your gifts, for Your amazing, amazing sacrifice. And because You love us so much, no matter what — thank You for all Your gifts and thank You for this really special day. We pray all of these things in Your name. Amen.