Hurray!
Spring is on its way!
Nature finally, shrugs off its snowy white coat.
I join in, tossing off boots and gloves, parkas and woolen hats.
Nature hits the refresh button, sending soft greens, brilliant yellows, and fragrant purples, reaching upwards to spacious blue skies.
My winter thoughts thaw, in answer to nature’s silent explosion of life.
With spring comes Easter!
Young minds overflow with thoughts of colored eggs: plastic or real. To be eaten or hidden with internal surprises.
Wicker baskets filled with goodies galore! Chocolate crosses, bunnies, or eggs. Marshmallow chicks, malted robin’s eggs and jelly beans, all combine for a sugar high.
I love all of these…..and yet there’s more!
My ULTIMATE FAVORITES for Easter aren’t sweets, anymore. It’s the powerful message of resurrection life, made possible by Jesus’s death. If all Jesus did was to die, a great story would end right there. But it is the celebration of His resurrection that ignites the joy, victory, and hope for new life through Him.
I’d like to share three pieces of art: a painting, and two songs, that continually spark the power and joy of resurrection life in this season.
My 1st ULTIMATE EASTER FAVORITE: is a painting by Eugène Burnand: “The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection”
Eugène Burnand, a Swiss painter completed this oil painting in 1898. It hangs in the Musée d’Orsay, in Paris, where my husband and I saw it, in person, several years ago.
Burnand captures the two disciples, the younger one, John, and Peter the older, as they rush to the tomb to see if it’s true, what Mary Magdalene told them: that Jesus has risen from the dead.
Burnand captures the inner feelings of each disciple. Peter especially grabbed my heart. I feel his guilt and shame at having denied Jesus, not once, but three times before Jesus’s crucifixion.
I can imagine Peter’s anguish at his total failure and betrayal of the one he’d loved and followed for three years. The one Peter, himself, had declared to be the Christ.
In Burnand’s painting Peter runs to see if it could be true? Did Jesus rise from the dead, as he said he would? But Peter’s worry goes beyond that impossibility.
If Jesus was alive, where would that leave Peter? Peter’s doubts went past the question of resurrection to something more personal.
If Jesus is risen, what will become of me?
I love this painting for reflecting on our humanity through Peter. How often we fall short. How often we make mistakes we feel are past forgiveness. Yet, Peter runs with John, pressing on to the tomb, to know the truth.
This brings me to my 2nd ULTIMATE EASTER FAVORITE: Don Francisco’s “He’s Alive” (1977), written and performed by Don Francisco. I invite you to listen to the song at this link on Youtube:
Don Francisco’s lyrics capture in melody what Burnand’s painting reflects visually: Peter’s anguish. The lyrics express Peter’s experiences, thoughts, doubts, and fears, as the resurrection morning dawns.
I follow the song, and plunge to the depths of sorrow and loss, with Peter, concisely captured in the line: “Even if He was alive, It wouldn’t be the same.”
How often can we feel that our mistakes have ruined a good thing? A good friendship? A good relationship? Something we’ve broken and can’t put back together again.
Listening to Don Francisco’s song while looking at Burnand’s painting, I feel like I am there. I am Peter, the traitor past forgiveness, as Peter must have felt. My 3rd ULTIMATE EASTER FAVORITE: is Keith Green’s “Easter Song” (1977), written and performed by Keith Green. I invite you to listen to the song at this link on Youtube:
Enjoyed in this order of Burnand’s painting with Don Francisco’s, “He’s Alive”, followed by Keith Green’s, “Easter Song” transports me from my earthbound limitations into the undeserved grace, mercy, and forgiveness present in the resurrection of Jesus.
Keith Green’s “Easter Song” invites me to accept the offer to be forgiven and join in the celebration that Jesus is alive and through Him, I may join in His victory. Transcending earthbound limitations, because He is risen and forgives me.
As Keith Green’s lyrics proclaim: “Joy to the World! He is risen! Hallelujah!” Jesus has done it all. He’s paid the price for my failures and invites us to join Him in his victory. Today and each day forward.
I invite you to follow the links and experience the unbelievable truth, that because He’s alive, and risen from the dead, each of us can have new life in Him right now.
Sue Agauas 