Tell Me a Story Daddy

“Tell me a story Dad!”

“In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.” So begins Eric Carle’s children’s story The Very Hungry Caterpillar…

I love story-time with my three girls: curling up together to read a favourite book before bedtime; watching little fingers turn pages, and sharing with them in the adventures and antics of a whole host of different characters. I love it so much that I have been known to tell mummy we’re only on our first book when we’re actually on our third!

The story of this little caterpillar that has a weeklong feast (culminating in an astonishing Saturday splurge) is one of my favourites. I don’t know why. Could it be the sweet simplicity? Maybe it’s the colourful pictures or the holes on each page that you can stick your fingers through? I’m inclined to believe that it’s the ending (or is it the beginning?) – the wonderful reminder of an amazing feat of nature where, after building a cocoon, he goes in a caterpillar and comes out a butterfly, spectacularly transformed into a vibrantly coloured, winged, fluttering creature. Transformation. Change. New creation.

Transformation. Change. New creation. Listen to what the apostle Paul writes: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV). Easter is all about change. It’s the decisive change in history. Jesus’s death on the cross…it paid the penalty for our sins…covering the cost on our behalf. His resurrection declares the sufficiency of His sacrifice, punctuating the end of the old order and proclaiming the end of death’s reign. His resurrection announces freedom for all who believe – freedom from sin’s mastery, freedom from guilt, freedom from death. His resurrection brings life. Real life. New life.  “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked….But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5).

Wow! What a change. Do you see it? The New Testament is full of change. From what you were to what you are. From slave to free. From condemned to forgiven. From dead to alive. The transformation of all transformations. Made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Available to all through faith in Him…”that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

“Tell me a story Dad!”

“Let me tell you about the first Easter, my darling. About when Jesus changed everything.”