THIS IS EASTER

(Yes, Jack is imperfect. He has His baggage. He comes from a broken home. He has made bad decisions in His past as He deals with the struggles with life. This is because He is human. He isn't Christ Himself, but he is a pretty dang amazing example of Christ nonetheless and of striving to be like Christ.)

I can't be the first person to note and be blown away by how symbolic this episode is of the love of God the father and Christ's life, death, and resurrection! If you actually watch Season 2, Episode 14 the resemblance is UNCANNY!


 

Christ suffered and died to save us in the most selfless fashion, and he didn't only want to save us for a decent life. He wanted to save us for an incredible one: which is why he left us all these treasures pointing to life with Him.




Even the words of the actors in the Aftershow to this episode are so symbolic of the sacrificial love of God the Father for His family and His Spirit never leaving them behind.



Even just now as I was looking for pictures I typed in "Kevin at Tree" and realized the Jack and Our Lord both use a tree as the symbol: "This is where you find out you are going to be ok."

 

Photo cred: https://lifeteen.com/blog/see-you-in-the-eucharist-no-really/

The analogies and symbolism keep growing! More than HALF of this stuff didn't even hit me when I first watched the episode!

Until this episode I saw a resemblance of the love of God in Jack, but it wasn't until this episode that I was absolutely blown away by its symbolism. Whether the writers of This Is Us are Christian or had any intentionality of resembling the Christ story I don't know, but WOW! These stories transcend time and always come back to us because they are a part of us.

I think This Is Us is a beautiful way to renew the incredibleness of the story for Christians who have felt their faith life going dry. Sooner or later we get used to the Crucifixion and Resurrection story. Their incredibleness and the feelings of awe, gratitude, love, and so forth that we experience in first hearing these stories begin to go dry.

How beautiful that new stories can remind us of that love. They can allow us to feel what we forgot to see and give us an incarnate example of living in God's image in the twenty-first century. They can allow us to grasp the truth, often in ways that we can more directly relate to.

Hopefully you will have a chance to re-watch this episode (and show), as I hope to do. Maybe realizing the reality of the story and the great hope we have for someday being reunited with this loving Father (symbolic in Jack) will ease the pain and help you to embrace the story.

"How great the Father's love for us

How vast beyond all measure

That He should give is only Son

To make a wretch His treasure."

-*-Selah

So hopefully I can leave you with this. All the love, all the truth, and all the feels. ;)

This is Jesus. This is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is God.

HAPPY EASTER!!!