Got a full stomach from all those chocolate Easter eggs? Picking out shreds of that green plastic Easter Bunny grass from beneath the couch and under the dining room table? Bringing a baggie to work of some of those leftover jelly beans? Ready to move on and put Easter behind you?
Stop. Easter is the holiday that lasts all year long. We should be able to wish each other “Happy Easter!” 365 days of the year. After that first Easter, it is here. It is always here.
So often we use spring as a metaphor to describe Easter. The daffodils coming up, the brown grass turning green again, the whole world coming to flower–aren’t these all signs of the Resurrection and new life?
But spring is cyclical, the seasons blend into one another, the rains of April leading to the flowers of May to the cherries of June to the autumn leaves of October to the harvest of November to the frigid snows of January to the bursting of the crocuses in March.
The Resurrection trumps all that. It is something entirely new. The world has been turned upside down. In Paul’s words, “We know that Christ has been raised form the dead and He will never die again. Death no longer has power over Him.”
And it no longer has power over us. So pass out those jelly beans and chocolate eggs and Easter Bunny grass all year long. You have gotten to Easter. You don’t have to ever leave it again.
There is a wonderful story a writer, Patt Barnes, told in Guideposts many years ago. He went to the cathedral on an Easter Monday and as he was leaving, he greeted an old disheveled woman sitting on the steps, selling flowers. He bought a boutonniere for his lapel.
“You’ve been sitting here for many years now,” he said. “And always smiling. You wear your troubles well.”
“You can’t reach my age and not have troubles,” she replied. “Only it’s like Jesus and Good Friday…”
“Yes?” he asked.
“Well, when Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, that was the worst day for the whole world. And when I get troubles I remember that, and then I think of what happened only three days later–Easter and our Lord arising. So when I get troubles, I’ve learned to wait three days…somehow everything gets all right again.”
Those words stayed with him whenever he faced trouble. “Give God a chance…wait three days.”
Happy Easter today and tomorrow and many days to come.
