Hope in dark times

Is it just me or are more people aware of the Easter message this year. Perhaps it is me, with my world often consisting of church folk. But I thought they were more messages of hope on Facebook today too. It seems to me in these troubled and often scary times people are turning to the hope of the holidays—in my case, the risen Lord. At church this morning, for his benediction, the minister threw open his arms and proclaimed loudly, “Christ is Risen.” The congregation spontaneously and loudly replied, “Christ is Risen indeed!”

We had a memorable service with majestic music, ending with Handel’s “Messiah,” an Easter tradition in my church. We made it to the nine o’clock service with time to spare, in itself a minor miracle. Friends joined us, and we exchanged greetings with many In the congregation, including most of our happy hour guests from last night.

Then home for brunch. Kudos to Jordan, who set a lovely table and served a terrific brunch—meatballs, potato casserole, corn dip. Thanks to Amy for the great deviled eggs—what is Easter without deviled eggs? And to Marj for fruit in appropriate dishes that looked like little Easter baskets. Conversation around the table was lively and occasionally descended into gossip. At one point, I looked at Marj’s husband and said, “It’s time for you to repeat, ‘Christ is Risen!’” He did, and the table echoed the response. It wasn’t sacrilegious—it was a way of drawing us back to the reason we were all gathered.

Give me a glass of wine at noon, and I’m done for the afternoon. Had a lovely nap, except that some kid—wonder who?—was practicing pitches. He’d occasionally miss the target and the ball would whack into my bedroom wall with a resounding “Thwack!”

Now I’ve been trying to straighten up—not easy to do from a walker. I cannot reach the upper hanging level in my closet, so I couldn’t get everything hung up. Looks like an evening for reading to me.

Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!