For God in all his fullness

was pleased to live in Christ,

and through him God reconciled

everything to himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth

by means of Christ’s blood on the cross (Colossians 1:19-20).

If a large pothole suddenly appeared in front of your driveway, it would annoy your every coming and

going. It’s not as bad as a fallen oak blocking your front entrance, nor as painful as a beehive in your

shower, but it is bad enough to warrant your attention nearly everyday. You could try filling it with

something from the backyard: dirt, grass, gravel, a few miscellaneous planks. None of these things

would fix the problem. It would only get messy and the hole would get bigger. The only way to fix the

hole is to properly clean it out, fill it with hot asphalt, and tamp it down.

The Bible tells us that in Jesus is the fullness of God. Jesus is not half God, half man. He’s fully man

and fully God. And it’s through Jesus that people are reconciled with God and experience true peace. There are a lot of other things that some claim to bring true peace: money, fame, power, and pleasure. None can bring true peace.

None can fill the hole.

It only gets messy and the hole gets bigger.

I filled potholes for a living for a couple of summers when I was younger and studying all sorts of

things in college. You wouldn’t believe the amount of potholes there are when you pay attention.

They’re everywhere! Hospital parking lots, McDonald drive thrus, 7-11’s, highways, cozy residential

streets . . . and so many people fill annoying potholes with anything they can get their hands on

(including garbage). It only make things worst. The hole is filled for a little while and then pop!

Everything’s out on the street. Potholes don’t need something completely different. They need the same thing that makes the rest of the road.

This is why the fullness of God had to come into our lives through Jesus. Philippians 2:6-8 puts it this

way:

Though he was God,

he did not think of equality with God

as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;

he took the humble position of a slave

and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form,

he humbled himself in obedience to God

and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Nothing can fill and fix your heart but Jesus. You can grab from the backyard of your life all you want,

but it’s only gonna end up back outside of the pothole and all over the street. Instead, you can trust in

the death and resurrection of Jesus, repenting from how you’ve always done it and then turning in faith to how Jesus did it for you on the cross. You can try and do it yourself a million times but you’ll never succeed. It only takes Jesus one time.

This Easter, put your faith in Jesus. He can do what you can’t.

- Pastor Aaron Talbot