The Easter season brings up thoughts in me of giving and receiving, from the smallest gestures to sacrificial choices. Of expressions as simple as a child’s smile to the profound gift that God gives in Jesus.

I think of when my buddy had fresh brewed coffee, cream and a couple cookies waiting for me when I stopped over one morning. Or how friends and a church group brought meals when my wife was laid up for a few days after surgery. Or when my sweet wife tumbled out of bed at 2am to bring me more water and helped me sip it when I was sick.

These are simple offerings, given without expectation, one person to another. They are intimate expressions between humans. And they are given freely, offered in love, lifting us up.  

Sometimes the giving comes by people we don’t know. The person who opened the door when they saw my hands full with bundles and bags. Or the person who slowed their car in an endless flow of traffic, making space for me to pull out. Or when my wife caught her toe crossing an intersection and fell. A man hurriedly stopped his car and helped her up before disappearing into the day.

I’ve also experienced it from the giver side when I became the hero stranger. I had stopped for a red light when a motorcycle pulled up in the lane next to me. As I glanced over, the bike and rider wobbled and fell over. I checked the traffic light, did a quick calculation, rushed out and hauled the bike up (wow, are they heavy). The stunned woman jumped back on as the light turned green. I wondered what crossed her mind as she drove away – was I her ‘angel’ for that moment? No, just a person spontaneously helping out.

Putting aside the complexities of how we perceive things, at a simple level, these events show love in action without expecting a return. It’s given freely and I think each time it happens, something good is stirred up within and between us, something that strengthens the invisible bonds that connect us all.  

Then there are times when the help given is exceptional, and even more, sacrificial.

I’m sure you’ve heard of stories like that. A family donating their second car to a man recently out of prison and needing transportation to a job. Or a man running into a burning house, the injured mother on the sidewalk crying out for her child that he’s able to save. Or the ultimate sacrifice, when a soldier falls on a grenade tossed among his platoon to save his buddies.

There are tears for the sacrifices and overwhelming gratitude for the choices made. I think everyone can recognize the magnitude of the cost and risk, again offered freely, expecting nothing in return.

This Easter season brings all this to mind as I consider the meaning of ‘ultimate sacrifice’. If I had known someone like that soldier, I’m sure my care for others would have blossomed. Then I think of God’s ‘ultimate sacrifice’ with the death and ascension of Jesus that made a way for me and you, for all of us, back to God. It brings me to my knees in thankfulness, and lifts my head in hope, and moves my heart & hands to offer grace and help to others.

I was stirred long ago to turn my life over to God. As the years have passed by, my astonishment has only grown at the scintillating hope that God offers to all of us.