His Cross Our HopePrimjer

On July 20, 1992, my daddy, Vincent Isaiah Norris, died. Every day of his life as I’d known him, he had lived for the moment he would meet Jesus; however, for several of his final years, Alzheimer’s disease had stolen most of his precious memories. He remained a sweet old man though, and neither Mom nor we children had any intention of placing him in a convalescent facility as long as we were well able to care for him. I often tell people that he stayed with us, not because he knew us, but because we were nice people.

Although he no longer recognized his earthly family, he never forgot anything about the Bible. In fact, he went into the back bedroom every afternoon and taught a Bible lesson to the imaginary people he had started to see. My only explanation for this phenomenon is that memories of life events are held somewhere in the brain but knowledge of the Word of God is housed in the renewed spirit where no disease can enter.

Eventually, several strokes took Daddy’s life. At his funeral, my brother, sister, and I spoke his eulogy. As I stood to say my words, I remember being struck by one overwhelming revelation: my daddy had lived his entire life for one moment. That moment had happened four days before when he entered into face-to-face presence with God. The Word – Jesus Christ the Savior, Who Daddy had so treasured and emulated before us, raised us to trust and believe in, and shared with his congregations – “the Word became flesh” stood before Daddy and welcomed him to the place He had prepared for him. (See John 1:14 and John 14:2).

As we enter into this holiest week of the Christian experience, I see once again how my daddy’s life imitated Christ’s. Our wonderful Savior lived His entire life for the moment of His death too. Oh, but what an efficacious death was His! His death satisfied God’s wrath against sin. His death takes away the sting of our deaths. Christians actually celebrate the death of our leader because His death crashed through the barrier that kept us from God the Father.

Now here’s the most exciting news of all: once Jesus paid the penalty for sin, He no longer needed to stay dead, so He rose! Hebrews 7:25 says, ​​”Therefore he is able to save completely [a] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (NIV). Christians celebrate our Leader’s crucifixion because, through it, Christ crashed through the barrier to God for us. Romans 6:4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (NIV)

This resurrection season, may we have a renewed commitment to live for our one moment.

~Sharon Elliott

Author, Speaker, Literary Agent