Doing a new thing

Now It Springs Up, detail

We have just celebrated the great high point of our year, the Feast of Easter.  While the seasonal aisle at the grocery store is full of colored plastic eggs and chocolate bunnies, (now on clearance,) we are pondering the great Mystery; that God has the power to bring life where there is only death.

All of us will eventually break free of our bodies, which are crumbling and impermanent.  Part of what happens at Easter is that the Lord shows us the way through that, and reassures us that we can trust Him to take care of us.  Some of us may be very close to that time when we leave our bodies behind, and for some of us it may be far in the future; none of us knows exactly when that time will come.  So how are we to experience Easter, right here, right now?

Easter is about how God is able to break us out of bondage.  That transition from earthly life to life with God can begin right now.  We can begin to leave behind what binds us, what is cracking and cannot last, and allow God to take over and do something new in us; something beyond what we are able to do of our own accord. This surrender and this new growth will manifest differently in each of our lives, but each of us can step into it, at whatever level we are able, and the Lord will work wonders.  This is the Mystery of Easter. Think about what is binding you and holding you back.  And how might you surrender that; how might you let go and let the Divine presence break you free of it?

Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43:18-19

May the blessing of Easter soak down into your life and cause marvelous new things to take root and grow!

Now It Springs Up – 24″ x 24″, wall texture and cotton on panel. Easter 2011