Easter is Here... and There

It struck me so odd, although rationally I should know it, but it’s so easy to think that the rest of the world lives just like I do. The Good Friday meditation started by describing the fall weather... you see my problem. Fall weather? Good Friday? Not correct. Even across the Atlantic, on Good Friday, it’s spring; Asia, it’s spring; Middle East, it's spring. Easter IS spring with new growth, fresh beginnings, and hope confirmed.

The problem was not with the facts, it was with my perception. I’ve been lucky enough to travel and I try to have global awareness, but it never occurred to me that Easter could be anything else but the way I’ve known. Of course the author lived in the southern hemisphere where seasons are reversed from ours. I could see where they might have the advantage for the dark moments of the Lenten journey, as leaves are falling and nights grow shorter, but how does Easter morning translate to their lives? They joyfully celebrate the Risen Christ who offered atonement for their lives as well as ours. "Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!"

The Southern Hemisphere has constellations, like the Southern Cross, that we will never see unless we travel below the equator. If we have such a hard time perceiving beyond our limited horizons, how can we expect to fathom what God can do?

My prayer for the congregation?

“My prayer for you, is that you will rise each morning and say to yourself and those you love, ‘Today, God is about to do a new thing.’ And then, I hope you will go out and look for it.”
-Anna Carter Florence