Many of us will not be with family this Easter. In recent years grandchildren have helped decorate an Easter tree, adding their own ideas and creations in their own inimitable ways. So, in lieu of their physical presence, but with a nod to craziness, I have decorated our tree [see photo].
As the tree was decorated the children’s chatter was often about the symbols we use at Eastertime – the new life of birds, mammals, especially rabbits, Spring flowers and the budding trees. Of course, Easter eggs, and the hope of lot of chocolate was talked about too.
These signs of life are no less evident this year. Many of us see evidence as we take our allowed walks, but even if we were completely restricted to our homes, that new growth and new life would still be happening. I am sometimes struck by the thought that nature just keeps doing what it does even where no-one will see it happening. That’s quite a salutary thought in a way. It reminds us that we are not the ones who orchestrate the world, we are not the ones who plant everything or imagine everything. We are charged however with being stewards of all the earth’s resources, alive or dormant or inanimate.
The analogies of living things coming to life after seemingly being dead, are crucial to our understanding of the Easter story. Jesus returning to life after being crucified and dead on the cross. There is ongoing and ever lasting hope bound up in these events, as well as wonder and mystery.
As you contemplate the events of the first Easter, and celebrate in ways that are different to your usual pattern, I wish you a time of closeness of spirit, if not physical reality, a sense of peace, and a happiness that comes from eternal hope.
Happy Easter. Hilary
