Easter is Everywhere

It’s been a strange winter in Colorado this year. Very little snow, only one weekend of ‘deep freeze’, and things are already blooming.

Seriously.

Although I am not a huge fan of the deep cold, it has been very odd. In some ways, its almost as if we were short-changed. Nice weather (above 40 degrees) has been frequent in February and March, and birds are singing, declaring what we are slow to admit to: Spring is here, and not just on the calendar. The possibility of snow and deep freeze still lingers in the background, as we have had snow as late as June, but this year it doesn’t seem to be possible. After all, yesterday it was 88.

Missing winter means the stark contrast between cold weather hibernation and the soul awakening things that happen when the world comes back to life in spring are…. Missing. Muted. Like I said.. it’s odd.

And yet.

For those of you in the places that have had more snow than you expected, the ones that are DONE with shoveling and digging themselves out this year, this is for you:

The fact that it’s spring according to the calendar doesn’t in any way mean nature always follows suit. We know this, instinctively. But on a church calendar, regardless of weather, late winter marks when we enter the season of Lent, and Easter is always in spring.

What always amazes me this time of year is that there is only one day a year that we officially celebrate Easter, but in actuality, the truth of Easter is written all over creation. All of nature, even our bodies if we pay attention, long for the budding of life, the surge of hope that comes.

In the deep winter we long for warmth; in the darkness of cloudy skies and snow and freezing temperatures when we have withstood all we can get, the longing for travel to warm places where the sun is shining is real. I remember living in the Chicago area and looking forward to work trips to Atlanta in March, just so my head and my body would see the proof that it was not going to be cold forever. Returning home to survive another two months of cold felt like torture.

Then, at some point, there was always that moment when I would look around and realize that something was being brought forth from the earth after the seeming death of winter: the resurrection of plants, the resurrection of warm weather, the rebirth of trees and grass as they finally return to their brilliant green. The whole world gets resurrected in spring…..somehow an echo that an even greater new creation will one day come.

And so we wait. We work, and we wait.

If you study any biblical writings, you will find threaded in the stories of the people of God writings about this world made new. Themes of waiting. Creation waiting, humanity waiting. A longing for wholeness, the shalom that the ancient scriptures speak of. For humanity to set down weapons of war and turn them into plows to feed the world. For broken hearts and lives to be healed, and the things that cause pain and destruction to be gone, forever.

You see, the resurrection of Jesus is not just a past thing, or a future thing when your days have come to an end.

It is the defiance of death in all its forms, the resurrection of life here and now, to which creation testifies every single year.

Every single day is a chance to rise again the newness of life, in the newness of hope, and walk forward to do your part in the renewal of all things. Yes, sometimes it’s easy, and sometimes it takes all you’ve got.

And when you lose sight of hope, there is one that will hand you his, because he lives forever praying for you.

You may not celebrate Easter. You may not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, or even in God. I know for some its’ a long shot, for others it’s something you left behind with your childhood. Or maybe you are trying to make sense of what you do believe, and what you can hold onto that’s real.

My hope for you is that the story creation tells, the one of death and rebirth, of coming to life after a deep winter sleep, will cause a bit of wonder that there is something bigger, someone greater behind it all.

We don’t celebrate Easter because things are done here on earth. We celebrate because Jesus defied death, declared a new way of forgiveness and mercy, and started the renewal of all things. There wasn’t a playbook on what that looked like or how long it would take, and we as humans are slow to learn. But just like creation doesn’t give up even after the hardest winter, neither does Jesus. He hasn’t given up on humanity.

He is still available to all who would seek him, breathing life into what was dead and giving hope – because we need resurrection now, not just some day in the distant future.

May you look outside (if something is budding in your sphere of the world today) and be reminded that there is One who calls you back to life as well…. and for those of you who do celebrate the resurrection, may you find new meaning in it this year in your life!

Blessings on your day, my friends!