Inspirational Thinking

Easter 2021

Easter has arrived. Our normal celebrations are missing and it really seemed off this morning. No getting up in the dark to get ready for sunrise service, no donuts and coffee in the fellowship hall, no fancy dresses, hats, suits, flowers. Our old church building sits silent for probably the first Easter in almost 120 years.

No songs of praise and extra special music. The pulpit is empty and we are all hopefully watching the service in our homes. No visiting relatives and friends at the morning worship service. No community fellowship, no egg hunt with the little kids running around trying to pick up and carry all the eggs. It’s enough to really get a person down.

In all of this comes probably the greatest opportunity we have ever had as individual Christians. Our chance to fulfill the instruction from Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God…” Every Christian is hurting this morning, it was to be greatest celebration, and now it will be here and gone and we missed it.

But are we really “missing” it. Even though the old building is empty and silent today every Christian should be rejoicing in their heart. Just like in the movie where the Grinch tried to steal Christmas, the quarantine orders can not take Easter away. Sure, the human traditions are not there, but the facts do not change.

Christ is risen from the grave, presented to God as the first fruit of the resurrection, just as the first of the barley crop was presented to God by the Jewish priests the day after the Passover sabbath on Saturday. This morning He sits by the Father making intercession for us. I would dare say this morning in heaven the intercession is great. While we may be trapped at home in relative silence the praise is still there, the prayers are still there, the adoration and recognition of what our Lord has done for us is still there, and there should be a song in our heart. Even those of us who do not sing well will at some point this morning probably go over the words of a few traditional Easter songs in our mind.

While we mourn the loss of our traditional worship I believe the sound of individual prayer, praise, and worship in Heaven this morning is deafening and it should be. Easter is not in the things we did as tradition. Easter is in what Jesus did.

Sure, I miss all of the traditional things about Easter morning as well as you do. But I know there will come a Easter day when the music in the old church building will be shaking the walls, echoing out into the parking lot. The people will be back trying to find a space to sit big enough for the whole family, and there will be donuts, egg hunts, a sermon to ponder, and fellowship with family and friends.

So this morning I must be still and know, know that He is God, know that His grace is sufficient, know that He loves us, know that He cares, know that He hears my individual prayer, praise, and worship. Quiet as it may be here, there is rejoicing in Heaven this morning as each of us praise the Risen Lord.

Tim