Journeying to Grace

Though we are still early in the Easter season, I admit I already started growing slightly impatient. Throughout the poignant images and reflections of Lent, I had been awaiting the joyful hope and promise of Easter and what it might bring. The celebration of Easter was wonderful – the flowing water, colorful blooms of the live plants, and extraordinary music helped us sing Alleluia with such open hearts and welcome the fullness of new life in the Risen Christ.  I reveled in it for a week and wanted that immediate awakening and renewal to last for as long as possible. Having ‘made it’ through such a long Lenten journey of questions, doubt, and weakness, I selfishly hoped that Easter would completely envelop me and just fix everything. I hoped the arrival of Easter would make it all better. After a reality check, some intentional surrender, and lots of prayer, I believe that Easter will make me better.

We know Easter to be a wonderful season of life and goodness, but perhaps it is also a road we’re invited to take where, in this restoring season of life and goodness, there is still so much to experience and have revealed as we continue to celebrate the glory of the Resurrection. From this road, we can see that Easter is all around us – in the people we encounter, in large and small moments of awe, in timing, and in unexpected graces. All given to us by a loving God who wants us to look for Him each day and feel His nearness. The illnesses, struggles, and daily challenges we’ve been experiencing probably didn’t change just because Easter came, but if we allow ourselves to be shown, and if we walk on this road of Easter with open hearts ready to encounter the God of mercy and deep love, we can be changed.

With the transforming and healing hope it brings, Easter lives within us. We are a people of the Risen Lord and live in Easter when we accompany each other, when we praise God in thanksgiving, and when we trust His work in us even if we can’t see it clearly. This season, as we walk the road of Easter joy, let us pray we know God’s nearness and are changed by the new life and goodness around us.