Darkness.
Waiting.
Feelings of doubt and despair but also the mere bubbling up of a hope not yet dead…
The earth trembles, the tomb shakes, and no amount of darkness can hold back the light … the life of CHRIST!
It can’t stop there beloved!
As this weekend started drawing to a close, my heart was yearning to bring the feeling into the week ahead.
Why, must be there be this climax and then back to normal?
Then I remembered a conversation I had with my third graders leading up to this holy day.
Jesus had just come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and the people were crying out,
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.”
Then this verse we rarely take note of.
” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher rebuke your disciples!’ And He responds, ‘ I tell you if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
The stones will cry out beloved.
The children and I started talking about creation and how it constantly gives praise to its creator.
The birds break the silence of a new day with singing.
The waves crash upon the shore bowing their heads again and again.
I asked my students, “If all creation is crying out, what should we do? ” ” Praise Him, they shouted!”
You see beloved, celebrating the Resurrection of Christ is more than about observing a day. It’s about letting that revelation inhabit every part of us. It’s training our eyes to look toward Heaven, straining to see the goodness of God when all around us smells like death.
It’s choosing to praise Him with all of creation while we wait, with creation, for the sons of God to be revealed.
Romans 8: 19 says,
“Everything that has been made in the world is waiting for the day when God will make His sons known.” (NLV)
Some versions say, creation waits with eager expectation.
It’s that dear ones, that eager expectation, the one we feel on Resurrection Sunday that we CAN carry with us into the week ahead.
And not just the week, but the entire year. We fix our gaze, along with all of creation on the creator, waiting for Him to bring Christ back once again.
This fixing our gaze may produce a longing in our hearts to see his face but it will also produce a great joy!
That joy tells us that while we wait for Christ, He meets us in those places of waiting. He binds our wounds. He gives us fresh courage.
He fills our mouths with laughter and our lips with shouts of praise! (Job 8:21)
So, let’s go forth with joy! Let’s carry the resurrection of Christ with us into today and tomorrow.