Last Friday my family and I visited the Empire State Building in NYC, along with 19,996 other people.  (Yes, twenty thousand is the average daily turnout!)  Fortunately, my husband had checked things out online the day before and had splurged on Express Pass tickets.            When we arrived at the ESB, we showed our Express Passes to the guard at the door and were immediately whisked past the lines of people to the first elevator up.  Now that’s express!            If you’ve never been to the ESB, let me tell you, the lines to get to that first elevator are long!  They wind around and around, and they don’t appear to move at all.  Walking past them, I witnessed the progression from excitement to fatigue to impatience in people’s faces.             A security guard actually stopped people who were finally getting into the elevator, to let my family and I get in ahead of them.  This felt, well, wrong.            I distinctly remember wishing that I had worn nicer clothes and some jewelry.  It’s silly, I know, but then maybe I would at least have appeared more worthy of the V.I.P. treatment.  I tried to tell myself that my husband had paid my way for this, but it still didn’t feel right.  I hadn’t put in my time – hadn’t ‘paid’ - the way everyone else had.            We haven’t ‘put in our time’ as the children of God, have we?            Jesus did that for us.  He did for us what we could not - could never - do for ourselves:  He’s bought us Express Passes to The Kingdom of God!            He paid for them with His life.            There are no other ‘tickets’ available, no line long enough.            Are we worthy?  No!  Good Friday reminds us of that.  Yet at the same time, God wants us to receive His Good Gift just as we are.            God wants us to come to Him, just as we are!            This is the message of Easter:  that Jesus Christ died on The Cross to pay the price for our sins.  He whisks us past sin and death, into the everlasting arms of God!            He is Risen!   He Lives!  And because of this, we have the promise of eternal life in and with Him!!            Hallelujah!!