I celebrated Passover for the first time in 2010. Passover starts the feast of unleavened bread which lasts for eight days. Did you know that anything that tastes good or has any flavor is bound to have yeast? Pizzas, fried chicken, and even certain condiments contain yeast. Even flatbread contains yeast for some reason. By the third day I was cranky and by the fourth day I stared at a frozen pizza in Walmart for 20 minutes. By the fifth day, G-d humbled me. Here I was complaining and Jesus abstained from food completely for 40 days. My yeast fast would only last three more days. I actually got embarrassed by my complaining. By the seventh day I realized that every single law, all 613 of them in the Torah, had special significance. For example, there are rules that prohibit a man from marrying a woman and her sister, which is what Jacob did. Suddenly, I realized that most laws came about as a result of events that happened in Genesis.
In 2015, I went to visit my then-girlfriend in Pascagoula, Mississippi. I had a mountaintop experience with G-d the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit during the feast of unleavened bread in a hotel room in Moss Point, Mississippi. For several years I had doubted my salvation. In that moment, I realized I had always been saved and always would be. The following day, I was in the hotel swimming pool.
G-d told me to mikveh myself as a sign of a new covenant He was making with me. Mikveh is a Hebrew word that means "immersion". I explained to G-d that there were no witnesses and tradition states that a mikveh must be observed by two or three witnesses. G-d said, "I will be your witness. Besides you are already chest deep in the pool.". G-d exists in three persons so I guess I had witnesses after all. I immersed myself three times in accordance with Jewish tradition that foreshadowed all three members of the G-dhead.
The next day, I found a copy of The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah in Books-a-million in Biloxi, Mississippi. The book was written by a Jewish man who later converted to Christianity in the 19th century. The exact distance from my house in North Carolina to the Books-a-Million in Biloxi was 613 miles---the same number of commandments in the Torah. On the very first page of the introduction, three words were found together: ...would fain hope. Fain is a variation of Fainn, the name I prefer to use. I had proof that G-d existed and that he loved me enough to provide me with tangible evidence of His love and existence.
Towards the end of the week, I was curious too learn what Pascagoula meant and asked my girlfriend. She said it was an Indian word that meant "bread-eaters". These miracles happened during a week in which normal bread was prohibited. G-d has a terrific sense of humor.
This year, I look forward to a new season of miracles during Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. I know G-d has great plans for us as individuals, for our cities, and for our nation. This is what Passover means to me.