Alleluia!
“People
encounter God under shady oak trees, on river banks, at the tops of mountains,
and in long stretches of barren wilderness. God shows up in whirlwinds, starry
skies, burning bushes, and perfect strangers. When people want to know more
about God, the son of God tells them to pay attention to the lilies of the
field and birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for
their pay. Whoever wrote this stuff believed that people could learn as much
about the ways of God from paying attention to the world as they could from paying
attention to scriptures.”
Barbara
Brown Taylor (An Altar in the World)
I woke this
morning just at daybreak to strains of organ music from the city park below my
house—a sunrise Easter service had begun. Just behind that, came the familiar
sound of a train whistle, as regular as clock work even on Easter. I trundled
down the stairs and opened the door to let Liza out, where the cacophony of
bird song met me, louder than either of the others. And, I thought, “The stone has been rolled
away…he is risen.”
Such
thoughts are imprinted on my brain; left there from sixty years of singing hymns:
“Christ
the Lord is risen today, alleluia!
Earth
and heaven in chorus say, alleluia!
Raise
your joys and triumph high, alleluia!
Sing,
ye heavens and earth reply, Alleluia!”
For me Easter
is always the turning point between seasons; between the cold, dormant browns
and whites of winter, and the fertile, pungent, rampant green growth of summer.
It is the slow dawning between sleep and waking, between death and life. What
better reason to sing, alleluia!
In the Spirit,
Jane
Jane
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