We are coming into the end of the Easter season—this Sunday
is Ascension Sunday, the last Sunday of Easter.
During the last five weeks the church has been celebrating the
resurrection and the new life that we have because of the death and
resurrection of Christ. I love Easterseason. We didn’t celebrate it in the
churches I grew up in. We just got the
glory of Easter’s morning and evening service.
Then things became rather non-descript until 40 days later, Ascension
Day comes along.
At Church of the Servant, we celebrate Easter for the whole
season. Our art is white and gold and
full of joy. I get to wear my white
stole. We sing hymns about the
resurrection and its impact on our life.
It is all about new life from death.
We were dead to sin but alive in Christ (Romans 6:11).
I was reminded of this miracle by the neglected pots on my
balcony. I neglected them last
fall. I just let the plants die. I never cleaned the pots. They have been there, brown and shriveled for
months and months. I was dreading
cleaning it all up and considering not planting anything this summer.
A couple of weeks ago we got rain and more rain and more
rain. Some of it managed to get onto my covered
balcony and into at least one of the pots.
The weather slowly warmed past the freezing mark. And I noticed something remarkable. There was a dash of green sprouting from those
shriveled dead leaves. The chives that I
grew last summer had come back to life.
It was a little resurrection.
That bright burst of green coming up gave me hope. It reminded me that my God says, “See, I am
doing a new thing! / Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? / I am making a
way in the wilderness / and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19). I don’t know exactly what new things God is doing and will do in my life. I do know that God is doing a
new thing. Just like my Easter chives.
Personal photo of my Easter chives, May 2013.
