New Life

Easter is a time of fresh starts & rebirth, and this last year has been a big one. Two days after Easter last year, we moved home to NC in limbo for a month & a half before getting a Michigan do-over. Our last Sunday in our beloved Naperville church was last Easter, and we sang this song:

It has stayed close to my heart. This time last year, I felt it as something I *knew* was true and had to proclaim, even though I felt like part of me was dying inside. (Yeah, it sounds dramatic, but leaving such a full life in IL on blind faith to go back to a place where we had not been happy was dramatic & scary. I. Was. Terrified.) But as it sings He had trampled death, I would come awake and rise up from my grave of fear & sadness to make a really happy new life in another new neighborhood and *truly* enjoy our time there!

And now, a year later, to have gone through that journey and to be back South, where we prayed for & dreamed of for 5 years? I want to laugh with joy that the things I dreaded did not sting or get victory over me, and I can't get through singing the "Oh, church! Come stand in the light!" part w/o tearing up. He has brought us through with flying colors!

This made me grin:

And thoughts from Ann Voskamp for Easter Monday:
Sun’s rising after Resurrection Sunday on a Monday world where everything’s changed…
Easter Monday faith believes that in impossible darks, impossible light sparks.
Easter Monday faith believes that the tomb places of our life, are but womb places for new life.
Easter Monday faith believes that Christ tenderly takes our doubts — and says touch my scars…
This faith believes in stones that roll, in grave clothes that fall, in an Easter people who sing hard hallelujahs … because we believe in resurrections always coming.

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