Over two years of saving her allowance. Saving her birthday money, Christmas gifts, other donations. Ivy saved up enough to get an ipad Air. There were points of wavering. Thoughts of Kindles and ipad minis. A recent debate of getting the ipad4 rather than the best and latest. Then Sunday’s Target ad announced a deal including a $50 gift card. Meg and I took the gift card, and Ivy had her ipad.

We give Ivy two dollars and fifty cents every week. She is required to tithe a quarter and save a quarter (the savings amount is still in her bank account). So raising 500 dollars might have seemed impossible when she was starting at five. Now eight years old, she has arrived.

What creates such determination. I know most people suspect it is brilliant parenting… and they are probably right… Seriously, I doubt it is parenting. Maybe it is genes? I can remember saving up for a Trek bicycle as a kid. Or maybe it is parents too cheap to buy it for their child… so your child has to do it herself!

To believe you can accomplish the impossible is a gift. It is a gift I hope you have. A gift I hope I have. That we may journey for years and smile like Ivy when we arrive.

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This week Christ’s journey comes to a close. The end was marked by darkness, hate, greed, and betrayal. For a moment Sin and her tool, Death, were victorious. But the journey was not yet over. Unbeknownst to the world, its own foundations were cracking. And through the cracks, life was rising up. Christ was rising. Death had no hold on the one who journeyed to sacrifice. Whose love would die for others. On a Sunday morning everything changed. The impossible was made possible. Let us smile, for resurrection has come. And let us join His journey to sacrifice.