“But Easter’s Over”
The 30 second scene opens on Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka smiling proudly as he presents his 5 “quadruple size’ geese perched gloriously on their thrones atop the “educated egg-dicator”. His guests stand, mouths agape, not quite sure what they are seeing. “I know what you’re thinking,” he quips, “they can’t be doing what they’re doing. But they are. They have to! I haven’t met the Oompa Loompa yet who can do it...Right now, they’re laying overtime for Easter.”
“BUT EASTER’S OVER!” obnoxious Mike Teavee shouts.
Wonka clamps a hand over the boy’s mouth and hushedly lets them in on the strategy, “they don’t know that yet, I’m trying to get ahead for next year...”
As I sat down to pray & reflect on Resurrection Sunday in order to write something encouraging, I could hear little Mike Teavee, ever stating the obvious, “BUT EASTER’S OVER!”
And it is. The restrictions of Lent have loosened, our plastic eggs are packed away for another year, thankfully most of the candy is even gone.
Our focus has shifted to planting our garden, preparing for our summer fun, and even planning our fall vacation.
Yet still, even as Holy week dissolves into...normal life, God remains the same.
He is Emmanuel - God WITH us. Just like He was in December.
We shout “hosanna!” - God SAVE us. Just like we did a few weeks ago.
He is alive & responding. Just as alive in this moment as He was on Resurrection Sunday.
Yes, Easter’s over...now WE get to respond to HIM!
On Sunday, Kyle explained that we have a few ways of responding…
We can get to work. - Jesus gave us a great example of this during his time on earth after his resurrection: speaking truth in love, helping people as they wrestle with pain & doubt, pressing into reconciliation. Tune in on Sunday for more.
We can check our gospel. - Stripping back our beliefs until there is Jesus and Jesus only. It takes work and humility, but it is so good to do this occasionally.
We can stand firm. - Sometimes life is just really hard...and still we can stand on the promises of our Risen King. He will provide. He will protect. He is with us. He is for us.
We can welcome Jesus. - Revelation 3:20 says that He is standing at the door and knocking…He doesn’t care if the place is a mess. He doesn’t care if you have nothing to offer Him. He just wants to be WITH you.
We can do nothing. - It’s so tempting to do nothing sometimes… It’s so tempting to leave this decision on the corner of your desk until receipts, tax forms, invitations, and all of the life stuff piles on top of it. Consider this a personal invitation to pick it back up, take a minute with Jesus, and figure out how He is calling you to respond.
-Randi
Randi Banning is married to Jairus, and they live in Cortland with their four children. Randi serves on the Regen Oversight Team and co-leads the Regen Care Team.
