Wednesday Wonder

 Happy Easter!

Spring is truly here. There is more sunlight. The days feel longer and the birds are singing evermore early each day.

Ah yes, the birds. Recently had a conversation with a friend who was complaining about a particular bird in her yard. It seems a woodpecker has moved in by her bedroom window. Said woodpecker begins pecking each morning about 5 am! My friend is not a morning person.

I had to laugh because I have been lying in bed lately enjoying the sound of all the birds around my house. It is a lovely way to wake up each morning. Much better than an alarm clock. But then, it is a wonderful cacophony of bird song, not the somewhat rhythmic tapping of a woodpecker.

The sounds of spring can be wonderful, but they can also be a bit annoying. Isn’t that the way with many things in life? For some what is enjoyable is then annoying to others. A slightly different experience, say bird song instead of wood pecking, can make something feel less appealing. I love that people care about their yards in my neighbourhood. I don’t love that to do that, sometimes my quiet Saturday morning on my deck is disturbed by the sound of multiple lawn mowers.

Sometimes the reminder of Easter sits in my life like that. Easter is the time we celebrate new life. We celebrate that Jesus gave his life to show us what God’s love looks like. He also showed us how to live that love. But to do so, he actually gave up his life. He sacrificed everything he had and was to demonstrate Love. That part of Easter sometimes makes me uncomfortable. The reassurance that God loves me without limit and brings me new life through that love, great. The rest, well umm….

That sacrificial part before getting to the new life, that is the part that can trip me up. Happy to accept forgiveness and new life, but not so much the fact that I need to follow the example of Jesus. Jesus died for the sin of the world. That sin still exists. That sin still manifests in how we treat one another, in how power corrupts and how it denigrates another. Jesus didn’t die so we could pretend all is good and we are no longer responsible for living the love he showed. He died so that we would forever remember exactly what that love looks like. So that we could also live the love that always puts the other first.

Yes, that may sound a little preachy. I am a preacher after all. But I look around our world, and especially these days, am hearing more woodpecker tapping than birdsong. It annoys me. And it calls me to account. What am I doing every day to address it? How am I living out the love of Easter and the new life it offers?

Each day, as I lie listening to the birds singing outside my window, I try to remember that I cannot change everything. I try to remember that I am not called to sacrifice myself as Jesus did. But I am called to share new life, new hope, new outlook and lots of God’s love with everyone I may meet that day.

May the love of Easter reside and shine out in you too.