Are We Ready? Preparing for Easter, C. S. Lewis
I’m pretty sure that if I’d met John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan River, I would have dismissed him as a deranged zealot. Sensing my lack of enthusiasm for his style and lack of decorum, he would, no doubt, have pointed one of his honey-stained fingers at me and shouted strange admonishments about broods of vipers and fiery chaff, thus confirming my suspicions. He would have told me to repent, to make the path to my heart straight for the Lord. He would have urged me to step into the water and wash away my multitude of sins. “The Lord is coming,” he would say, and we should all be scared out of our minds.
The weeks leading to Easter are an echo of John’s ministry. They are days of preparation, of making smooth the way of God. We reflect on the events before us; the heralds of a palm-waving crowd, the decisions being made for and against Jesus, the treachery of betrayal and the cruelty of a cross. As we near Holy Week and the celebration of an empty tomb, we must ask ourselves if we are truly ready to meet the risen Lord.
Preparing for Easter (Harper One, $17.99), by C. S. Lewis, is a collection of devotions by one of the most influential Christian writers of the modern era. As we approach the defining days of Easter, books like Preparing for Easter can serve as a guide to our own season of repentance and reflection. On Easter Sunday, we will once again encounter the risen Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Are there things in our life that need to be set aside, priorities that need to be re-arranged, prayers that need to be said?
Preparing for Easter is a collection of fifty readings compelling us to make straight the path of God.
The cross and Easter are upon us, those great and terrible days of the Lord. The risen Messiah will soon stand before us. Are we ready?
–Darrel Holcombe, Owner
Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts
Colonial Promenade, Alabaster
