Now We Can Have Easter

This post started out as a Facebook status. But it was just too good not to blog about.  I am sitting here at the computer bemoaning the cold weather when my 3 year old looks out the window.

Maddie: "The snow melted!!! Now we can have Easter!"

She was so excited, so full of hope, so full of life. I wondered if that's how the women felt when they realized Jesus was no longer in the tomb.

"The darkness has passed! We still have hope!"

I was so ready for spring. For warm weather. For sunshine. For hope. For life.

When we walked out of church Palm Sunday and the snow was falling I was crushed. I remember cold Holy Weeks, but never quite THIS cold. Never SNOW!

It also seems like there is so much turmoil around us in general right now. Facebook feeds are full of friends on opposite sides of the same issues calling for action, for boycotts, for their right to be heard.

And I think back to how confusing, and conflicting, and cold that first "Holy Week" must have felt. How overwhelming. A triumphant entry, a desire for salvation from their oppressors, the realization Christ hadn't come to over throw the Roman government. Watching the man they thought would save them die on the cross..... death... cold... "snow".... but then.... but then HOPE!

May this last push of winter remind me of the need for spring.

May this reminder of death remind me of my need for life.

May this darkness draw me to the light.

"Sorrow lasts for the night, but JOY comes in the morning"


Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.