Easter, Revisited

Over the last seven years I celebrated Easter with sunrises over the Indian Ocean, the Zambezi River, and Lake Victoria. Each celebration was special, casual, and in community, each person adding a song or a prayer or coffee... They were celebrations of Christ's life in us as His body.

This year it was hard to see how to celebrate, without a sunrise and without strong ties to a body of believers here. But my friend Natalie thought of a new tradition that we could share,
even though we're on opposite sides of the state; She suggested we send each other photos of things that make us think of Easter.

One of my favorites is this dandelion photo. The yard had been just green, until one morning it was cheerfully speckled with yellow. It made me think of how Jesus surprises us with life where we think there's none. Particularly, He came after 400 years of what seemed like silence between God and Israel. But really He was working all through that time a plan that bloomed brightly on Easter.