resurrections seen!
Sarah Breuel, staff worker with GBU Italy, reflects for Live Life on the power of the resurrection.
‘I see dead people,’ said the nine-year-old boy in the famous movie The Sixth Sense.
Celebrate with us the students in GBU Italy who are now following the Giver of Life.
Many of us here in GBU Italy are joining the young boy with the weird claim: we are also seeing dead people. People who are not physically dead, but also not fully alive. And more, we are also seeing, right in front of our eyes, some people being resurrected: students who were previously dead are now alive!
One of them is Marialaura, a student of Physics in Rome. Sitting on the stairs of the Science Faculty one Thursday afternoon, a group of students were looking at the biblical text about Jesus and Nicodemus. In it, Jesus made some audacious claims that people had to be ‘born again’ to really live, and that those that would do so, would have a kind of life that would not end.
As she looked to the text, we gently asked her: ‘Were you ever born again?’
‘I’m not sure,’ she answered, looking puzzled by what it could mean. But when she heard that if she decided to believe and follow this Jesus of Nazareth she could have a life that would not end, she said with a smile, ‘Yes, I want that for me!’
A Chinese student of Law named Sofia is another student who was ‘resurrected’. She came to Italy knowing very little about Christianity. Through friendship with a Christian student and a Seekers Bible Study, she now follows Jesus and is joyfully sharing him with her friends. It has been incredible to see the life she is radiating to her friends!
This is an intriguing facet of the Easter message. Not only Jesus himself was resurrected, but he invites us to see many other resurrections right in front of our eyes! People who are now dead, can start to live. They are no longer just surviving, but really living. Living life in abundance. Life lived for eternity.
In this Easter week, we invite you to celebrate! Celebrate the carpenter from Galilee who was able to conquer death! Death did not have the final word in the life of the Nazarene. Celebrate also with us the students in GBU Italy who are now following the Giver of Life.
We pray and hope that you will be attentive and faithful to the ‘dead people’ God has put in your life, and share with them the joy of believing in him, and thus, truly live.
May you be filled with joy as you reflect on the power of the resurrection at work in your life and in the lives of those around you.
