Got a full stomach from all those chocolate Easter eggs? Picking out shreds of that green plastic Easter Bunny grass from beneath the couch and under the dining room table? Bringing a baggie to work of some of those leftover jelly beans? Ready to move on and put Easter behind you?<\/p>\n
Stop. Easter is the holiday that lasts all year long. We should be able to wish each other \u201cHappy Easter!\u201d 365 days of the year. After that first Easter, it is here. It is always here.<\/p>\n
So often we use spring as a metaphor to describe Easter. The daffodils coming up, the brown grass turning green again, the whole world coming to flower\u2013aren\u2019t these all signs of the Resurrection and new life?<\/p>\n
But spring is cyclical, the seasons blend into one another, the rains of April leading to the flowers of May to the cherries of June to the autumn leaves of October to the harvest of November to the frigid snows of January to the bursting of the crocuses in March.<\/p>\n
The Resurrection trumps all that. It is something entirely new. The world has been turned upside down. In Paul\u2019s words, \u201cWe know that Christ has been raised from the dead and He will never die again. Death no longer has power over Him.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it no longer has power over us. So pass out those jelly beans and chocolate eggs and Easter Bunny grass all year long. You have gotten to Easter. You don\u2019t have to ever leave it again.<\/p>\n
There is a wonderful story a writer, Patt Barnes, told in Guideposts many years ago. He went to the cathedral on an Easter Monday and as he was leaving, he greeted an old disheveled woman sitting on the steps, selling flowers. He bought a boutonniere for his lapel.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve been sitting here for many years now,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd always smiling. You wear your troubles well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t reach my age and not have troubles,\u201d she replied. \u201cOnly it\u2019s like Jesus and Good Friday\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, when Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, that was the worst day for the whole world. And when I get troubles I remember that, and then I think of what happened only three days later\u2013Easter and our Lord arising. So when I get troubles, I\u2019ve learned to wait three days\u2026somehow everything gets all right again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those words stayed with him whenever he faced trouble. \u201cGive God a chance\u2026wait three days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Happy Easter today and tomorrow and many days to come.<\/p>\n