Spring has sprung and April has begun. After lifting March’s calendar page, remembering crossing off my planned activities, I turned to April and updated it, drawing a line through scheduled outings, again noticing that like the arrival of Spring, some special days will happen, days that I’ve celebrated with others since my childhood. Oh, how we’ll miss watching the children of our church, dressed up and JUMPING UP AND DOWN, waving palm branches and singing about Jesus. Palm Sunday will still come in three days.
Three years ago, I wrote in a post called TRANSFORMED,
Easter mornings in our little country church were the highlight of the year. Joyful people dressed in new clothes filled the pews. Easter lilies graced the sanctuary, scenting the air with their fragrance. The organist pulled out all the stops as we sang “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”.
Emmanuel United Church of Christ aka “Mud Church” of Wyandot County, Ohio
Easter remains on the calendar, and we will celebrate in new ways this year, physically distant, but one in Spirit. This week I have been reading and pondering the account of Jesus’ last week from the Gospel of Mark, chapters 14 and 15, responding by writing some words, a poem that I’d like to share with you.
If you withdrew your spirit, Lord, all of us would perish.
Life is from you. It’s your breath in our lungs, so we sing our praise to you.
It’s your delight to watch the robins build their nests,
to see the whitetail doe bring forth her fawn,
to see the rivers teem with fish,
and the fields burst forth with blossoms.
You have chosen mankind,
giving us purpose and relationship with you.
You walk with us, blessing us with human love.
In your design, a child is conceived in love
and is brought into the world,
a child, precious to you with a purer faith than schooled theologians.
You have ordained praise from the lips of infants and children.
Mankind has failed, rejecting you, earning death.
We fear death, that dark unknown, the end of what we have loved.
You made a way for us,
a way to have life, to enjoy you forever.
The way was death,
death of your Son,
death defeated by death of the only perfect One.
We waited, grieving, confused, hopeless.
Then Life burst forth,
out of the grave,
into the sky,
and said, “Follow me.”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6