There is a true story about a young woman who walked into a fabric store and asked the owner if she had any kind of noisy, rustling material in white. The owner searched her stock and found two bolts of white, rustling fabric that fit the description.
As the owner was cutting the fabric to the customer’s specifications, the owner’s curiosity got the best of her. She asked the young woman why she wanted such a noisy and unusual white material.
The young woman replied, “You see, I’m making a wedding gown for myself and my fiancé is blind. When I walk down the aisle, I want him to know when I have arrived at the altar, so he won’t be embarrassed.”
To me this is a wonderful Easter story, a love story at that. When I am really honest with myself, I admit that I’m like the groom in the story. So often in life I’m blind!
I’m at the end of the aisle, waiting for love, waiting for someone really special to appear in my life. I’m waiting for Jesus to appear in my life!
I am kind of like Mary Magdalene and the disciple waiting for Jesus to come out of the tomb on Easter morning (John 20:1-9). And guess what? Jesus does come toward me on Easter morning – Risen – and all in white, a noisy white, a rustling white – to get my attention, especially if I’ve been blind and too busy to notice him.
The Risen Jesus himself, full of New Life, comes to tell me about New Life. I love the New Life of nature all around me in springtime as the flowers begin to poke their heads above the ground and bloom.
Most especially this Easter Jesus is telling me about the New Life of heaven. Here is where it gets scary….I’m reminded of the old Good News/Bad News joke at my age. The Good News – You’re going to heaven. The Bad News – You’re leaving tomorrow!
I thought of this a lot on the weekend of March 20th. The doctors and the nurses were telling me that my brother Tom would be dying in a matter of hours. As I held his hands I kept telling him to not be afraid, an unbelievable New Life was about to begin for him, and the angels were coming to take him home to the loving arms of Jesus, so he could be happy with Jesus forever. This was about my faith and my believing in Jesus as my brother was leaving me.
This is scary. None of us has seen the Risen Jesus, so we have to rely on the people in the Gospel stories who have seen him.
But you and I can experience the Risen Jesus. How? In the same way that we experience love. Love is not material. But you and I have seen what happens to people who are in love. We see a power and a gentleness in them. It’s the same with Jesus and his Resurrection.
We can feel within us something far greater than everyday, ordinary living. When we feel the power of love, we feel the power of the Resurrection. These are moments when whatever has died in us is raised to New Life again.
I invite you on this Easter Sunday to look at all the family and vacation pictures lining your walls, on your dressers and on your smart phone screens. You will see all of the “Little Easters” you have had throughout your life. Drink in the moments when you felt love, New Life and Resurrection stirring inside of you.
Easter is so much more than a feeling moment.
Easter is a faith moment.
Easter doesn’t have all the warm fuzzy feelings of Christmas – the carols and the cookies, the decorated trees, the parties and the presents.
Easter does have a Risen Jesus – who calls each of us to a New Life today. A Risen Jesus who calls each of us to an Eternal Life with him on an upcoming tomorrow.
Have a Blessed Easter and Blessed “Little Easters” today with Jesus, Your Risen Savior!
THE FIRST EASTER TEACHES US THAT LIFE NEVER ENDS AND THAT LOVE NEVER DIES!
