Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday by Ana Lisa De Jong

By Ana Lisa De Jong

It’s always amazing to me how each Resurrection Sunday I am affected anew, freshly struck with the wonder of Easter Sunday, as though I am standing there 2000 years ago, Jesus having just risen, and the tomb only empty a few hours.  As though I have only just heard of Jesus meeting the disciples on the road to Emmaus, or showing the disciples the wounds in his side and palms.   The story of Easter comes alive for me again as I re-enter it, and I think as Christians we share this special remembrance, but have our own unique ways of experiencing it.   Yes, it becomes a very personal thing on Easter Sunday, our faith; despite our knowing that Christianity is a universal religion that we share, and though we may reflect with others during Holy Week, Easter Sunday is very much about the risen Lord and what it means to us as individuals.   The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth causes the knowledge to come upon us afresh, reminding us how Jesus’s ascension to heaven affects us personally, intimately, in terms of our journey and relationship with God.  Knowing our lives without Jesus would never have been the same, we respond with rejoicing, cherishing the knowledge close to our hearts.  Just like Mary in Luke 2:19 ‘treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart’, we after his death and celebrating his resurrection, ponder what his life means to us, and world around us; and we see everything afresh, in the light of the resurrection story.

A Love Story

It’s a love story.
As all good lovers know
there is a blueprint to follow,
for a love story
to ring true.

And Your love for us
is the love of a lifetime,
an eternity even,
from the beginning,
of time, to amen.

Your love for us
exists in every note,
of all the lovers’ ballads,
which man has ever yet
composed.

Oh yes, Your love, for us
lies woven in every story
ever told,
which spoke of daring,
and of loss,

and triumph after all.
Yes, Your love, for us
is in the hearts, of everyone –
of all who love
wholeheartedly,
only to have to go on alone.

For Your love, in truth
is lived out by us.
In all of us,
who behold Your story,
and allow it to determine our part.

From the cradle
to the cross;
from time’s beginning
to Your sacrifice,
and its final accomplishment.

We wait, and we trust
and we know just a little
of what it is to love
truly,
because you’ve shown us.

What it means to come and give up,
to lose what can’t be kept,
to gain what can’t be lost.

Ana Lisa de Jong

“all those who have waited with love for him to come again will receive a crown.”
2 Timothy 4:8