I recently dug down into our raised garden bed so I could place a layer of wire on the bottom. We have a vole problem; these gnawing nuisances want to destroy our potatoes and other root veggies. When I finished this strenuous exercise I stared down. 

I found myself looking at a grave!  I immediately thought of baptism. No joke! I couldn't get the image and concept out of my mind. In a sudden surge of imagination and fascination, I could see myself in that grave. But it wasn't in a macabre sense at all. I had been thinking about the reality of baptism and how my old nature was buried in that tomb. 

What else could I do? I placed a blue tarp over the dirt so that I could "green screen" the effect and then called my wife Karen. Lying down inside the grave I looked up and saw her smile. She knows me well enough that when I decide to do something creative there is no stopping me.

Have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Romans 6: 3-4

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2: 20

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.    Romans 6: 6-7

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right.
By his wounds you are healed.
Once you were like sheep who wandered away.
But now you have turned to your Shepherd,
    the Guardian of your souls.   1 Peter 2: 24-25

At this Easter time Jesus is alive, but are you?