Looks like it is time to put all of the winter clothes away.  We really never needed any this year but even the long sleeve shirts are about to go into another closet.  Easter is usually the beginning of spring no matter when it falls.  It just ended up behind the weather this year.  Maybe we can enjoy the celebration with no worries about temperatures and the like.  The egg hunts deserve decent surroundings.  Our new clothes need a nice day for us to parade around in them.  I would be happy if the allergies improve by then.  Even my youngest was sniffling and coughing some this evening.  Nothing says the start of spring like sneezing and wheezing.  That does get old fast.


Nothing bothers me more than missing what this time of the year is all about.  It's bad enough we do it at Christmas but do we have to do the same at Easter?  Increased church attendance doesn't really get to me.  You would think knowing some are there for the yearly appearance would drive the minister up a wall.  Don't get me wrong.  We do enjoy seeing a larger than average crowd on any Sunday much less Easter.  You should know that our egos do sadly need that attention.  Each year there comes the illusion that perhaps they will all return the following week.  Even though it seldom if ever happens there is that same temptation to think this is the year.  Maybe if we really got Easter then we would better follow through on our promises.


What happened on that very first Easter does strip away illusions to guide us to harsh reality.  The event was never meant to be an escape.  It is a divine encounter with how we truly live.  We discover that suffering is a part of life we cannot avoid.  No amount of denial shields us from hardship.  God takes that head on at Easter.  We also learn that death still is very much a real part of our journey.  Sometimes we forget that truth.  Easter doesn't say that death has no pain but that it cannot win.  We need to remember that hope is more than wishing for better times.  Easter almost screams at us about authentic hope.  God is involved in every single step of that initial Easter experience.  At no time do things get out of His control.  Not anything those human beings do to Jesus is beyond that divine participation.  We experience hope because our God remains intertwined in every moment of our life.  I do wish we understood all of that.


So let us continue to pray and hope God will get the attention of people this year.  All we need to get us through the year is expressed in the Easter experience.  It may not be that we need an easier world but that we need an authentic God.  The truth is we already have that but now we need to let Him into our world no matter where we are.


Bro. Trey