April 21, 2023

Is it just me, or have the weeks since Easter felt a bit heavy in our world? We've experienced the death of our own Karen Campbell, and I know some of you have experienced other losses, and changes in circumstance, in your own lives as well. In my own life, my wonderful Aunt Lynn died a week ago, far too young, several months after a cancer diagnosis. In our national news, we've had some more shocking and deeply disturbing incidences around gun violence based on fear and intolerance. There are laws being pass with the intent to discriminate. At least for me, these weeks have been a heavy time.

And yet, I've been reflecting on the fact that this is what Easter is all about: regardless of any of the devastating circumstances we each experience in our lives at times, fear, pain, and death never have the last word. In fact, quite the contrary, thanks be to God. 

As I drove home from church on Thursday, between rain showers, I marveled at all of the green suddenly popping up everywhere. Where just a few weeks ago we had snow (!) and then all of the mucky brown that had been hidden all winter, suddenly GREEN everywhere I looked, shimmering in the spring rain. I could not stop looking at, and marveling at, it. What a gift! What a gift, this life. Even when it's impossibly difficult at times.

My prayer for you this week is to let your eyes soak in all of the shimmering green. Even if, especially if, your heart has felt a bit heavy. Let the new buds on the trees and the brightening all around you remind you that stuck in the muck is never the end. Now the green blade rises - and love lives, thanks be to God.