The Day After

Yesterday was Easter. Apparently, I am not a good Christian blogger, because I did not write a little something special for the occasion. I guess I was too busy celebrating New Creation with my family.

When I woke up this morning, I glanced through my reading list, and realized that nearly everyone but me apparently takes time out to write about Easter. So, although it's a day late, here's my Easter post.

It's interesting to see how the world goes back to normal after the holidays. We get our time off from work, enjoy the long weekend, eat too much food, and then the day after, we pick up where we left off, and life returns to normal.

Today was like pretty much every crazy Monday in the life of young parents: I was up at 3am for work, the boy was getting into everything, which resulted in a "just to be safe" phone call to Poison Control before Shan left for work. It turns out that shampoo might cause barfing if ingested in large enough quantities. Whether or not Eli did ingest a large enough quantity remains to be seen, but so far, no barf.

While at work, I launched one airplane, which came back broke, launched a second airplane, and re-filled my fuel truck from being left un-filled over the weekend, all before most intelligent and sane people punch in for the day.

The world returned to normal. But it got me to thinking, how we have come to the place where we can return to normal after something like this? How can we return to normal when just yesterday, the Creator of the Universe began the process to make all things new?

Were the Disciples able to "return to normal"? Did they wake up the day after and say, "Wow! What an amazing day yesterday! Well, time to get back to the Lake. Those nets won't mend themselves, you know!"

I doubt it.

I imagine they wandered around Jerusalem half in a daze, looking at one another and shaking their heads. "Did this really happen?" "Did we see what we think we saw?" "Did He really just....?" "I can't believe Thomas did that!"

Luke says that they stayed in the Temple continuously, praising and worshipping God.

I'd be willing to bet that every sunrise took on new meaning for them.

Every breath they took was fresh and new.

Every tree, every building in the city probably glowed with newly discovered life.

Imagine what the gold and bronze in the Temple courtyard looked like to them! It probably burned their eyes with it's new found significance.

What words could they possibly use to worship?

What psalms could they sing adequate praises with?

I think part of our problem is that we forget the significance of the holiday. We forget that it is a celebration of New Creation. We lose sight of the power that Easter represents, and the implications of that power. It becomes just another day to stuff yourself silly with family, take naps, and watch golf, or baseball, or racing, or any other sport that happens to be on.

One of our friends on Facebook commented that she was glad that she managed to celebrate Easter without all that "Jesus stuff".

Really?

We can do that now?

Is that not the whole point of Easter?

How can we separate the two?

If you celebrated Easter without Jesus, then you didn't really celebrate Easter, did you?

We can't separate the two. And we must not let ourselves believe that we can or should just "return to normal" afterwards.

My hope is that through all the days after, all the crazy Mondays, all the early departures and broken airplanes and empty fuel trucks and the pressing schedules and the poison control centers and the shampoo-guzzling contests, through all of these things, that the wonder and the beauty of Easter remains strong, bright and inexplicable to us. That we won't be able to "return to normal". Because the Renewal of all things has begun, and there's no going back.

That's the whole point.


wingnut