It is EASTER SUNDAY, welcome to Day 7 of Holy Week Tears
Love and Prayers to you all on this Easter Day!
If you have journeyed with us this last week, you will know that today is Day 7 of our Holy Week Tears reflections and that we have been creating a visual focal point as we have moved through Holy Week.
Hallelujah! Christ is Risen, that is our joyful cry today…no more tears of sadness, today tears of joy. No more tears on our display but in the centre of your tear drops place a vase of flowers and if you can find some butterfly pictures to cut out or draw, add them to the vase as well.
No quiet thought, but a rousing hymn with which to launch our day, even an Easter Day different from what we had hoped for and imagined: I know that my redeemer lives (Stf 303)
Flowers and Butterflies are symbols of new life, bursting forth from the darkness. Easter celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus who was born for us, died for us and rose from the dead for us. Soon we hope to celebrate the resurrection of the freedom we once took for granted, a new normal in which we can once again meet with those we care about without restriction. A form of our old lives will rise again but hopefully with a new understanding and appreciation of all that we have.
Read of the Resurrection that we celebrate today: Matthew 28
A meditation for this day:
The dark clouds that yesterday tumbled across the sky and rested on the hills,
are now yielding to the finger shafts of golden brilliance creeping across the darkness.
The tears of yesterday that blurred our vison and wet our cheeks and were without consolation
are now tears no more but salty stains marking the moment.
And the dawn brings light, golden brilliance as splinters of glass,
spreading and transforming before our eyes and our tears are gone, wiped away,
and we make our way in the changing light and a clearer vision to the tomb of sadness and oppressive darkness
and BEHOLD
the darkness is no more
the tumbled clouds have given way
deep sadness and bewilderment, the heavy pain of death
TRANSFORMED.
Light and Life stand before us.
“Who is it that you seek?”
Death is gone, overcome, overshadowed, overwhelmed.
Life lives, loves, hopes, tears of joy like diamonds glisten.
The cross is no more than wood chopped and fashioned.
The tomb a stone hewn place
Beyond and above Halleluiahs resound and echo and fill our minds…
For Christ is alive and the tumbled clouds have been transformed…
Tears of joy and relief of happiness and celebration wash away our fears…
Our spirits lifted, enlightened,
And Christ is the golden brilliance by which we see our lives,
and Halleluiah is our Cry…Halleluiah, Halleluiah, Halleluiah.
FOR JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN.
IF you have youngsters with you, or even if you fancy a daily workout, why not try this Easter Hymn:
Sing a song, sing a joyful song (StF 310) then you can clap and jump and dance and wave and sing!
If you don’t fancy a workout try my favourite Easter Hymn: Thine be the glory (StF 313)
Jesus Christ (once again)
Bethel ‘I raise a hallelujah
A closing prayer:
May the tears of today
Be the balm to the pains of yesterday.
May the tears of tomorrow
Be the cleansing of memories.
May the tears to come
Be those of joy and laughter.
And may the Risen Christ go with you.
Amen
