The Morning

It was early, sometime between the dark of night and the grayish purple of beginning dawn. A thin veil of silver mist covered the hillside as a few deer ventured out for one last time before bedding down for the day. The mockingbirds were giving over the night to the morning larks, and the stars were quickly fading in the face of the coming sun. 
 
As I began trying to envision the morning when the stone rolled away and my resurrected Lord stepped from the tomb; I wanted to draw you, the reader, into the scene. I wanted you to smell, to feel, to hear, to be part of the moment when the world’s shackles fell away. I truly wanted you to hear the rustling grass as the early morning field mice started at the sound of resurrected feet taking their first step. I wanted you to stare in silent wonder at the white breath of the Christ hanging suspended on the cold morning air. I wanted to make it real; so real that you could not deny.
 
I wished to make it so that you trembled in fear as the earth shook under your feet when the covering stone rolled back; watching, muted, as winged lightning opened the floodgates of eternity; listening as the heavenly being proclaimed the end of death and the birth of life.      
 
Feeling, with the women, the heart stopping fear, all the while hearing, “Do not be afraid!”  Hearing without comprehension of promises kept, of prophecies fulfilled, of love in full bloom.  
 
I wanted your ears to hear “Greetings” from beyond the grave. I wished for your hands to clasp His feet and for your lips to kiss the stain away. I longed for your fingers to explore the torn pathway of the spike, tracing it’s course on it’s way to the cross; and I longed, make that I long, for you know the Truth.
 
I yearn for you to leave empirical knowledge on the shelf long enough to grasp a Truth that goes far beyond our limited ability to understand.
 
For Christ is Truth and His love is true.
 
Easter morning celebrates His love and the promise of eternity it brings.
 
This Easter morning I pray that you rest in Christ’s peace and celebrate His everlasting love!!
 
Love,
Pastor Tony

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