Happy Easter!
For all my fellow believers out there, may the peace of Christ be within you and lift you above any challenges you’re facing in your lives.
Well, after last week’s miserable experience battling both the rain and a virus (I got tested and it turned out to be Covid), this past week was fantastic. The weather was beautiful and I spent most of the week up at the cabin with the dog. The trees up there are in bud and the woods burned with a visible red sheen that made the sunrises and sunsets all the more striking.
One morning in particular was particularly beautiful. A hard frost fell overnight and as I stepped outside at dawn for my morning walk with Cassie, the sun was breaking over the trees and the fields glistened in the light like a carpet of jewels. Crows cawed overhead, a woodpecker hammered a dead tree nearby, and I was overcome by a feeling of peace and well-being.
One of the silver linings of being sick is that it makes you better appreciate your health. As I walked the fields this past week, I found myself basking in the feeling of being healthy again—no fever, no chills, no sore throat. The restorative powers of nature and the human body never fail to amaze me. For a week, my immune system was battling a virus and, at the end of the week, it emerged victorious, and with a deeper store of antibodies to ward off future viruses.
Wow. That’s incredible.
It struck me, thinking on this, that the resurrection we celebrate in a big way on Easter through the death and rising of Jesus, is also something we could be celebrating in small ways throughout the year as we get through sicknesses, injuries, surgeries, and all the other slings and arrows that life tosses at us. The power of faith is not limited to the next world, after all. The same faith that takes us to our heavenly reward also carries us through the rough spots of life.
That’s if we choose to believe. Which I do.
For me, the choice to believe is a practical one. Faith gives me comfort and strength to keep going when times are tough. So what if the things I believe in can’t be proven here on earth? It doesn’t matter. The great philosopher Pascal called belief in God a wager. It’s a wager with limited downside (you lose little by believing) but huge upside (comfort here on earth and everlasting life in the next world).
Not bad odds. I’ll take them.
That was my week. I hope yours went well. Have a blessed Easter and week ahead.