Easter 2013

I sit at my computer this morning, the warm cup of ever present coffee sitting next to me as I look out he window.  The sky is overcast this morning, the air humid with the hope of rain later in the afternoon.

I've sat at this window for almost four years now through various seasons of the year:  summer heat, winter rain, winter snow (once), every changing of the seasons - which here seems to equate into hot or cold, leaves falling or no leaves falling.  Such are the seasons in the semi-equatorial region in which I live.

And today is Easter.

The grass and not-grass that grows in the backyard is all the marvelous color of green.  The trees have their new budding of foliage upon them.  Where the grass has not fully covered or where their is too much of a build up I see the dead brown of leaves, almost like small islands in an ocean of green.

Interestingly my eyes are not drawn to the green - instead, they are drawn to the dead leaves scattering the lawn.  They remind me of something that I should have taken care of long ago, old business I should have resolved.

When Christ arose, He too arose in the midst of the dead brown of life.  The trappings of death - the tomb, the sealing stone, the wrappings in which He was laid - were around Him.  But the focus was not on these dead things, supposed reminders of the futility of life as it was.  The focus was on the Christ, the One Who Conquered Death.

The Risen One.

Do we also grasp this as we look out our own windows on Easter Morn?  Through the resurrection of Christ we too are made new:  "Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Through His Resurrection we too have the promise of newness in ourselves, the hope of life eternal, the hope of an existence where the dead brown of our own lives is covered by the green beauty of forgiveness.

We may live in reminders of the old world - old mistakes, old consequences, even old behaviors - but we should remember that these things do not define our life in Christ any more than the grave defined His Resurrection.