Many thanks to David Gilbert for putting together a moving and powerful Easter service for us again this year.  Even when we think we know all there is to know about this “old story”, it never fails that something new and wonderful is seen each time we go back and take another look.  Perhaps the new and wonderful thought coming from our Easter service  was the fact that the first people Jesus commissioned to tell others the “Gospel” – the “Good News” of His Resurrection – were women.  Perhaps it was the fact that, after the Resurrection, Jesus searched for and revealed Himself to people who otherwise would never have found Him - and this essentially sums up the entire Story of The Bible.  I would love for you to share your thoughts from Sunday’s service with me.

I know we were all excited to wake up Easter Sunday morning and celebrate The Resurrection with our faith family, even though we had to celebrate apart from each other physically.  But, did we wake up Monday morning with anything like that same excitement?  Why not?  Is it because Monday was just another day?  Another day of struggles and work?  Another day of pain and sorrow?  Another day of troubles on Planet Earth?  Let me share with you something I learned about the Resurrection Story while preparing for our last sermon series.

G.K. Chesterton was a writer and theologian from England who lived from 1874-1936.  In his book, “The Everlasting Man”, he spoke of how the Sunday morning of The Resurrection was actually the first day of The New Creation.  And on that day, “in the semblance of a gardener, God walked again in The Garden.”  

Don’t you love that word picture?  Can’t you see it in your mind?  If I could quote from “The Wedding Song” by Peter, Paul and Mary – “As it was in the beginning, is now until the end.”  

“In The Beginning”, God walked in The Garden where all was fresh and new and clean; where there was only joy and confident expectation that tomorrow would bring new wonders to behold; where there was only love and fellowship and thankfulness.  Then, it all fell apart.  And we knew, to quote the classic lyrics from the song, “Woodstock”, by Joni Mitchell - “We have got to get ourselves back to The Garden”.  But, no matter how we tried, we could not, and we cannot “get ourselves” back to The Garden.

But even before everything fell apart, The Plan was already in place to restore all of the blessings of, and to bring us back to The Garden.  The Sunday morning of The Resurrection may have looked the same to everyone else.  But Jesus was beginning to open the eyes of His friends to the fact that everything had changed.  I pray that our eyes have been opened too.  The Resurrection has changed everything, and those of us who are in Christ are “new creations” – 2 Corinthians 5:17.  If we will just open our eyes, we can walk through this life seeing everything as fresh and new and clean; we can walk with joy and with confident expectation of new wonders to behold; and we can walk in love and fellowship and thankfulness – all because of The Resurrection. 

Ambrose K. Ramsey III

Shepherd