Neil's New Blog (04/13/20)

Alleluia, Christ is risen!

I was walking Basco the Pug on Saturday evening and came across this piece of art one of my neighbours produced on their driveway. I don’t know these people beyond a polite greeting on the road. But this expression of joy and goodwill brought a smile to my face and lifted my heart on a hard day. I love the colours, the Easter eggs and the Easter bunny ears sticking out of the rainbow. There are the spring flowers all blossoming in gloriously impossible colours. And the rainbow: that symbol which speaks of promise, inclusion. In this Coronavirus time it is being used as a sign of hope: things will get better; there will be life after this.

I so appreciate the way my neighbours shared that joy with me. I was trained to believe that Easter joy was something Christians were supposed to share with them! That we are the ones with all the joy while everyone else struggles away with wretched and hopeless godlessness. I remember someone correcting me and telling me solemnly never to say “happy Easter”. It is the Sunday of the Resurrection of our Lord and Easter is a pagan term and bunnies and eggs are fertility symbols and have nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus. Quite right. But sometimes being right does rather take the fun out of things.

One of the little blessings I am beginning to find in this time of isolation is that which comes from receiving from others. There is so little we can do for each other directly right now.  But we can lift each other’s spirits and find joy even when we are still in between Good Friday and Resurrection in our lives, still buried in the tomb of isolation.  New life will come, but it will be different than the life before. The risen Jesus bore the marks of the Crucifixion in his resurrected body. It was life bursting from the tomb, but it was different than the life that was before. We will, soon I hope, burst forth from the tomb of isolation. But life will look different when normal – I urgently hope it does.  The cessation of economic activity all over the world has brought terrible hardship and jobs needs to be restored. But it has allowed the Earth a chance to breathe. We need to pay attention to what Earth is telling us.  I hope I will be more willing to receive encouragement and help from others. I hope I will be better able to distinguish the important from the unnecessary. And above all I pray that I will be able to see God working right around me in ways big and small. Even in my neighbours writing a hope-filled message in chalk on the drive.

So what the heck. Happy Easter everyone!