Is this you?
I’ll give you a hint: It would be really cool if it were. This is Anastasia Nikolaevna, daughter of the Czar of Russia in the early 1900’s. As you may have read, the Czar and his family were murdered on July 17, 1918 by the Bolshevik secret police. When the family’s destroyed remains were recovered, Anastasia’s body was missing, which led people to believe she’d escaped and survived. Predictably, quite a few women have come forward over the years claiming to be Anastasia, hoping to lay claim to the Czar’s considerable fortune. So far, no one has fit the bill.
Anastasia is is the Greek word for resurrection.
So maybe this is you (no offense intended to my male readers). If you belong to Jesus, your identity is not a mystery. Your name, your story, goes like this: “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection… If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” (Romans 6:5,8)
To wade into the stream of God’s story is also to plunge into the resurrection and the power of God. “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…” (Ephesians 1:19,20). It’s the same power that raised Jesus from the cold tomb—that healed the blind with a touch, that calmed a raging sea, that silenced demons, that restored lepers, that made the lame stand up and walk again.
That same Spirit offers us the wisdom of Christ for good choices, the strength of Christ to face our struggles, the mind of Christ to keep things in perspective, the power of Christ to forgive those who hurt us, and the words of Christ to speak into darkness and confusion. God’s inheritance isn’t just pie in the sky, it’s a legacy to live today by the power of Christ’ Spirit living within us. “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance…”
In other words, Anastasia is your middle name. Time to claim the family fortune. Because if Christ has risen, YOU have risen… indeed.