a day late?

...or a reminder that Easter is not about just one Sunday in Spring?

look who is starting to peek out today! =) at first i was a little disappointed when all the buds stayed tightly wrapped. i checked the lilies about 50 times, hoping they would somehow know that it was Easter--being *Easter* lilies & all--and would open up there pure white trumpets in joyful praise. nothing doing. when i went to bed last night, not a bud had budged.

but when i woke up this morning, look at what was waiting for me. as i impatiently waited for my lilies on Easter, my lilies had a lesson in store for me. Easter isn't just about that one day. that one day is just a reminder that we have a reason to celebrate *every* day.

i was reminded of this particular email i received a couple of weeks ago:

The hymn writer Isaac Watts celebrated the central symbol of our faith in his well-known hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." This is the cross of Christ, not a replica of wood or stone encased in gold, but the [one] on which "the Prince of Glory died."

The cross struck horror into the hearts of millions in the ancient world, just as the twisted cross of the Nazi swastika or the hammer and sickle of communism were meant to strike terror into the modern world. No one gloried in the cross until the Prince of Glory was elevated upon it. Then the cross became for the first time the "wondrous cross," the sight of which can turn a man's life inside out. The dying Prince of Glory made it so.

Christ was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. The Crucified is not dead. He lives! And faith is not in vain. As He is true and real, as His wondrous cross was true and real, as the open tomb is true and real, so true and real is faith that trusts in Him.

At the cross, life meets death, and only life remains for those who pin their hopes on Him. Fear is turned into faith, and hatred of God and man transformed into love. All this comes from the Savior Christ who speaks to you today: The whole realm of nature is Mine. I gave it all up for you. For you I died. For you I live.
(Dr. Oswald Hoffman)

life meets death, and only life remains. an empty cross. an empty tomb. i get a shiver just thinking about that.

are you still rejoicing today...?