Easter really sneaked up on me this year. I mean, I'd seen the ten foot tall inflatable Easter bunny at New World supermarket, and I'd eaten some hot cross buns last weekend, but I hadn't given Easter much thought after that.
When life is treating me well, Easter is easy to ignore. Right now life is treating me very well.
Yesterday I woke up, drank peppermint tea and read Hemingway. Then Dan and I ran down to the beach and jumped into the sea. We swam against a background of volcanic islands and palm trees. We walked back up to the house, barefoot and soaking. We made coffee and I wrote all day. If this isn't life treating me well, then I don't know what is.
But even when my house is in order, when my finances, my emotions and my relationships are all ticking away nicely, I need to pay Easter some respect. I've got to tip my hat to this holiday I know I'm indebted to.
Easter comes along, if quietly and on tip toes, and reminds me of the 29 other Easters I've lived. Easters when I wasn't sipping coffee on the beach in New Zealand, when my house felt anything but in order. I think of years when Easter was really stretching, because of difficult relationship scenarios, because of a train wreck that crashed into my faith and worldview, because of fear, guilt, doubt and all of those other things that happen to humans.
As a human of faith, specifically of the Christian variety, Easter is my backbone. In the Christian calendar, it's the holiday that celebrates Jesus' resurrection. It resonates with me, because I'm all about resurrection. Easter reminds me that I believe in a God who says, "Give me the worst you've got. Give me the places you feel death. I'm going to go ahead and turn all that into life." This resurrection belief is one I've clung to through many long Good Fridays of the soul, waiting for the relief of Easter Sunday.
I am so grateful that right now I don't feel like I'm hanging on desperately to a resurrection God. But Easter is my yearly reminder that I have felt this - I've hung on with white knuckles - and that I may again. And that whether I feel it or not, my identity revolves around a resurrection. I'm grateful to have a God who doesn't let me drown in desperation, but drip feeds me hope when I need it.
Easter may humbly try and sneak by unnoticed, but I'm not going to let it. I hope everyone has a lovely holiday with friends and family and that you may all know the grace of resurrection in your lives this year as well.
Photo: Lawatt
Posts
8 comments:
This really made me tear up! Thank you for such an uplifting post. I am so glad things are going so well for you and love just how humble you are.
Reading 'I'm grateful to have a God who doesn't let me drown in desperation, but drip feeds me hope when I need it' was EXACTLY what I needed right now.
I just adore you, Alisha!!xx
Happy Easter to you all!!!!
:))
Have a lovely Easter Alisha. Thank you for reminding me about the true meaning of the holiday.
PS: your day yesterday sounded absolutely amazing.
Alisha, you are so lovely. Thank you for sharing such a tender glimpse into your Easter thoughts. As I prepare for Easter I am full of gratitude for Christ and His Resurrection as well. Here's a thought I was just studying, from Elder Holland (an Apostle)
"As we approach this holy week—-Passover Thursday with its Paschal Lamb, atoning Friday with its cross, Resurrection Sunday with its empty tomb—-may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear."
You are such an example of discipleship to me...thanks girl!!!
happy easter to you! and i LOVE that photo!!
Thanks for all the Easter greeting! It's come and gone in New Zealand. You're in for a treat.:)
Beautifully written! Thanks for your thoughts Lish... and it sounds like you had a lovely Easter with new traditions!:)
Lovely writing Lish. It only makes me more hungry for the ways we might share our craft and our faith when you return to the West Coast.
Easter has altered its significance for me monumentally in the last five years. I used to think it was God's way of proving that the cross worked. Now I know the cross (and forgiveness) is just the beginning of life with God. The resurrection is all the rest: freedom, restoration, holiness, and union with the Father. Further up and further in.
Post a Comment