When my dad was in college in the late 1950s, he contracted Measles. His fever began to grow along with the other classic symptoms. When he arrived at the hospital, his temperature was 108 degrees. They packed him in ice to try to combat the fever. That fever finally broke, and he recovered, but he would carry one effect for the rest of his life.

Measles caused hearing loss for my dad. I have no memory of my dad without the presence of hearing aids. I learned to speak loudly and clearly so he could understand. I frequently translated the soft-spoken words of others so he could understand conversations. When I reached 6th grade, I learned that my dad wasn’t the only person whose hearing was damaged by the virus. One of the teachers in my middle school had a young daughter who was already fitted with two hearing aids. She contracted Rubella as a baby, so even though I hated to get shots, I remember distinctly the vaccination I received for Rubella because I had seen her little life altered forever by that disease. When I was in college, our campus had a Measles outbreak, so I stood in line at the campus gym for a booster because I knew the toll that virus could cause in a personal way that my peers could not fathom. My world had a disease that could maim or take life, but I had a way to prevent that from affecting my life, an answer for the sickness, and my family and I embraced that answer.

This week, we celebrate God’s answer to the disease of eternal death. Sin has ravaged the world from the very beginning of human history. We used our choices to reject God’s design and replace it with our own. But that action brought us face to face with death. Jesus faced down death on the cross and eradicated its effect because of His resurrection. In some of our services, we sing a song that says, “Death was arrested and my life began,” about Jesus’s resurrection and the rescue He made possible through faith in Him. Today, hope is available to ANYONE willing to call upon Him in faith. Hope is readily available, but many reject that hope and decide to face death on their own.

West Texas counties are peppered with families who chose to reject the vaccines that could have saved them from a disease. People we know will reject the Hope that could save them for all eternity.

But all who trust in Christ will celebrate this weekend with resounding hope because of the resurrection. The resurrection changed everything. It is our greatest hope, our greatest comfort, and Christ’s greatest act in history.

He IS Risen!