So what does Easter mean for us, really? What hope does it give? What change does it make in our lives? I pondered this on Easter, as the death toll for our soldiers in Iraq passed 4,000 and our country entered the sixth year of war. I thought about it as I prayed for tangled families, met with hurting people, spent time with people who inhabit dark or dangerous corners of life.
The good news of the Gospel is that the resurrected Jesus showed up in the midst of his friends who continued to struggle with relationships, with putting food on the table, with historic hatreds and fears. Life’s struggles will never magically disappear, but the presence of the Risen Christ tells us there is a deep redemptive Presence for Good that walks with us at all times. Andrew Peterson expresses it well:
After the last tear falls
After the last secret’s told
After the last bullet tears through flesh and bone
After the last child starves
And the last girl walks the boulevard
After the last year that’s “just too hard”
There is love...love...love
And in the end, the end is oceans and oceans of love
We’ll see how the tears that have fallen
Were caught in the poems of the Giver of Love and the Lover of All
And we’ll look back on these tears as old tales.
After the last plan fails
After the last siren wails
After the last young husband sails off to join the war
After the last “This marriage is over!”
After the last young girl’s innocence is stolen
After the last years of silence that won’t let a heart open
There is love...love...love
