Redemption

It is Spring for sure! I went to lunch yesterday and as Mr. Sam and I pulled out of the parking lot he said "Mom, the trees are back". And sure enough the Bradford pears are white and magical looking. This inspired me and I got home and looked out and sure enough my bulbs have tons of greenery busting threw the ground and the forsythia looks like it is about to burst open. How perfect for Easter weekend! The long miserable winter is finally releasing it's hold over nature and new life is becoming evident everywhere I look. Hurray! Who knew how badly I needed to see the spring. It's like the gentle breeze that blows over you on really hot days that refreshes you all the way to the core.

Today is Easter and it is such a good day to worship. Everyone is dressed in the bright spring colors and they look a little like Easter eggs sitting across the sanctuary. Here and there are visiting extended families and long lost friends, there is a party feeling in the air. The music is upbeat and joy filled, the ushers look for empty places to put late comers, the kids are wound up like tops. The Lord is risen, He is risen indeed!

I suppose it has to be winter to enjoy spring so much. I guess we need Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to have the radiant joy of Easter Sunday. The redemption is necessary because of the fall, but oh how marvelous it would be to get to live in the redemptive part all the time. To wake up every morning and observe again the wonder of new life, to worship every Sunday with the excitement of being people of the resurrection. To put aside our petty annoyances and personal preferences and to focus on the gift of coming in to the story on Sunday morning instead of Friday night. To be gifted with the knowledge that though we don't know when or how exactly, the story does end happily ever after with an eternity in the presence of God. We are an Easter people!

The temperatures are chilly. The wind has been blowing non stop for several days and the air is definitely crisp. Yesterday at soccer I was bundled up in a winter coat and sitting under a blanket. Still, it is definitely spring and the warmth of new life is not diminished by the temperatures. It's the promise that warms the heart and the promise is enough. Let it ever be so. Christ the Lord is risen! He has risen indeed!!!