Celebrate!

Spring is here and each day I delight in the beauty of the flowering trees that mark the season.  After the long, hard winter, I welcome spring with an open heart, mind, and spirit! 

Even though I am grateful that we are in the midst of spring, I thank God for the different seasons of the year, for they satisfy different needs and desires, and they prompt us to different thoughts and activities.  The same is true for the Christian year:  There are different seasons in the year that satisfy our different needs and desires, that prompt us to different thoughts and activities.  Right now we are in the season of Easter.  The season of Lent -- a meaningful season in its own right, but a subdued, reflective season -- is over.  We may appreciate the insights that the season of Lent gives us, but our spirits soar during the season of Easter!  It is a joyous time, a time to shout “hallelujah” and rejoice!  Easter gives us permission to sing loudly, dance wildly, and act like children at a party.

Yes, Easter gives us permission to act like children at a party:  like the children of God at a celebration of life and love.  The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has conquered sin and death and claimed us as children of God who live eternally in the light.  Jesus has shown us the Way, taught us the Truth, and brought us into the Light.  We can take all of those insights we had during the season of Lent, bring them to the celebration, and offer them to God, the host of the party.  He will take them and make something beautiful out of them, something that will enhance our lives and the life of the world.  God is the consummate host:  He can take whatever you bring him and turn it into something wonderful. 

That is what Easter is all about.  Is there sin in the world and in us?  Yes.  Do we suffer as we walk this earth?  Yes.  Do we watch others die and will we die ourselves one day?  Yes.  All of this is true.  But sin, suffering, and death do not have the final word.  Even in the midst of sin, even in the midst of suffering, even in the midst of death, God works to bring life and love.

When I was going through a tough time a friend said to me, “God is working even now to bless your life.”  She reminded me that even when we can’t see it, even when we can’t feel it, God is working to bless our lives.  Even as Jesus lay in the tomb, God was working to bless us with his resurrection.  We will have Good Fridays, we will have times when it feels as if we are laying in a tomb, wrapped in burial clothes, but we will also have Easters, glorious resurrection days when God’s blessings are made known to us.  So let us act like children at a party – children of God at a celebration of life and love.  Let us raise our arms in the air and shout “hallelujah!”  Let us since and dance!  Let us make fools of ourselves in the name and the power of the risen Christ!

(If you're old enough, you might remember the song and video by Kool & the Gang, "Celebration"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GwjfUFyY6M)