Dear Friends,

 

What difference will Easter make for you?

Here are some possibilities:

Lots of chocolate – or whatever other indulgence you gave up for Lent.
An extra hour of daylight in the evenings, as we move into summer time.

An urge to get into the garden, cut the grass, tidy up the borders and do some spring planting.

Time to put away the drab colours and heavy fabrics of winter, and to bring out your spring wardrobe.

Beginning to think of holidays or day trips, perhaps getting out your caravan or even your tent, if you’re very hardy.

 

All these are pleasant suggestions, and will no doubt lift the spirits after a long and dreary winter. But there’s more to it than that.

 

                                    Walking in a garden

                                    At the break of day,

                                    Mary asked the gardener

                                    Where the body lay;

                                    But he turned towards her,

                                    Smiled at her and said:

                                    ‘Mary, spring is here to stay,

                                    Only death is dead.’

 

The first Easter was a life-changing event for all those who experienced it. They could never go back to being the people they had been. The followers and friends of Jesus were devastated when he died; but as they encountered him again and again in those meetings which took place in the weeks following that Easter morning, as they began to realise that in a new and wonderful way, he was still with them, and the power of death had been defeated for ever, they became different people.

 

The trouble is that there are many people who call themselves Christians and claim to believe in the resurrection, but it seems to make no

 

difference to their lives. You’d think they might see things in a new light – but they seem to be afflicted by the same gloom and lack of hope as everyone else. Yet this is a belief which turns everything upside down; how can people carry on as if nothing had changed?

 

The new life of Easter is about more than flowers and chicks and blossom – though the rebirth of creation in the spring-time is a welcome reminder of God the creator making all things new. Easter is about new possibilities for our lives, about all that is dead in us being revitalised, about hope being restored. Even if the bodies we are stuck with for the time being don’t function as well as they might, the picture of the risen Jesus, his wounds still visible, is a sign to us that the worst tragedy can be transformed by the power of God – as the blackness of Good Friday was to become the joy of Easter morning.

 

You may like to reflect on these words:

‘What then is resurrection? If it happens to us now, how are we to identify it? What are the signs of its coming?

Resurrection as a present miracle does not deliver us from the unevenness and turmoil and fragmentariness of being human. The miracle is to be found precisely within the ordinary round and daily routine of our lives.

Resurrection occurs to us as we are, and its coming is generally quiet and unobtrusive and we may hardly be aware of its creative power. It is often only later that we realise that in some way or other we have been raised to newness of life……..’

 

So – what difference will Easter make to you?

As you savour all the joys of spring-time and give thanks for all the new life around you, look for the signs of that new life within you, too, and for signs of growth in your own life.

And may your Easter be peaceful, happy and full of blessings.

 

With love,

Rosey.