happy easter. it was a lovely eve at the refuge last night, so simple, so sweet, so fun. kids & grownups, love & laughter, sadness & hope all mixed together. plus, one advantage of having a saturday evening gathering is that we get the resurrection one day early!
i love easter & the signs of hope, of spring, of new life. but i will be honest, i am not really into the rah-rah of making it over-the-top-and-all-about-the-hoopla. Jesus, alive and well, moving and healing and restoring and teaching, is a part of our daily lives. i believe one of the trickiest parts of the long-haul spiritual journey is continually noticing God’s hope cropping up in small and wild and wonderful ways that might easily go unnoticed. opening our eyes to see, our hearts to feel, our ears to hear, our mouths to taste the sweetness of simple moments that are signs of Life.
i believe that life is a weird mixture of the fridays, saturdays, and sundays of easter. death & dying. grief & sorrow & silence & confusion. and new life springing forth and forth and forth in unexpected ways. last night people shared signs of life during our gathering & as i stood in the back (i still can’t sit down for long but my back is getting better, yeah!) i looked around the room and felt overwhelmed with love and hope for the small and big and simple and extravagant ways that Jesus is alive in my friends. i shared from luke 24, Jesus on the road to emmaus. my favorite part:
as they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. then he broke it and gave it to them. suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. (v. 30-31)
i hope our eyes keep being opened so we can recognize Jesus risen in each other. and see the kingdom now in ways we might not think are worthy enough or exciting enough. and that we can celebrate the simple things, the ordinary things, the small things, the real things, that remind us that life is worth living, that our darkest nights are not the end of the story, that Hope is here.
when i look, i see Jesus everywhere. in you. and you. and you…and not just today but the other 364 days that i need just as much reminding that he’s here. now. healing, restoring, bringing beauty from ashes, showing up, making things new, oozing the good news into hard places everywhere.
i closed last night with this beautiful prayer from christine sine. i love these words:
Jesus Christ you have risen and we see you,
In the faces of the poor,
In the hurting of the sick,
In the anguish of the oppressed
Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you,
In the weakness of the vulnerable,
In the questions of the doubting,
In the fears of the dying.
Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you,
In the celebration of the saints,
In the generosity of the faithful,
In the compassion of the caring.
Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you,
You transform our world with love and hope,
You ignite our hearts of stone with compassion and care,
You transfigure our world with the spirit of life.
Hallelujah, Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you.
yes, i see you, Jesus, alive in people everywhere i look.
and thank you, my blog friends, for being part of my journey. i see Jesus in you. your stories bring me hope. enjoy a lovely day of food & fun & naps & love.