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Easter reflections
Boots, coats, scarves and mitts are put away for another year. The snow banks have disappeared.
Grass has returned and is getting greener. Trees are budding. The birds are back. Daily the hours of darkness recede sooner making way for longer stretches of daylight. Tulips and crocuses are blooming. New life is visible all around us.
The lengthening days and the perennials pushing their way through the soil are reminders of the central mystery of our faith, resurrection. Renewal, life defeating death, hope in the shadows, these are the things of Easter, the basics of our faith. Easter proclaims that the God who created all things is not distant. God stays close to our world, supporting, sustaining, renewing and recreating. Communities of hope are formed around story and song. Humans made in image and likeness of God are given opportunities for renewal. To the challenges and struggles of our world God responds with love more profound and powerful than we can imagine. All these things point to the renewal that is Easter’s promise, as surely as the birds and flowers are signs of spring.
The sentiments of Easter are beautifully expressed in the poem, The Legend of the Raindrop:
The legend of the raindrop
has a lesson for us all
As it trembles in the heavens
questioning whether it should fall –
For the glistening raindrop argued
with the angel in the sky,
“I am beautiful and lovely
as I sparkle here on high.
And hanging here I will become
part of the rainbow’s hue
And I’ll shimmer like a diamond
for all the world to view” …
But the angel told the raindrop,
“Do not hesitate to go,
For you will be more beautiful
if you fall to earth below,
For you will sink into the soil
and be lost awhile from sight,
But when you reappear on earth,
you’ll be looked on with delight;
For you will be the raindrop
that quenched the thirsty ground
And helped the lovely flowers
to blossom all around, and in your resurrection
You’ll appear in queenly clothes
with the beauty of the lily
And the fragrance of the rose;
then when you wilt and wither,
You’ll become part of the earth
and make the soil more fertile
and give new flowers birth” …
For there is nothing ever lost
or eternally neglected,
For everything God ever made
is always resurrected. Author Unknown
Elsewhere on this web site, which I invite you to browse, are the times and dates of special events and services at Trinity York Mills. At each of them there is the opportunity to connect with the Easter story in music, words and friendship. Whether you are reading this as a first time visitor to this site or as a long term member at Trinity I invite you to consider attending one of these events in the hope that the Easter promise will become more real for you. Maybe invite a friend or neighbour to come with you. As well, this season of the year invites us to reflect on the Easter stories and let ourselves be amazed again at God’s great love for each person – a love and understanding that is beyond our imagining.
Sincerely,
Ferne
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Worship 
