Dear Risen Lord disciples:
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Some of you know I’m an avid cyclist, so I have to tell you these past few weeks have been magical, cycling both neighborhoods and country roads, watching each passing day bring new splashes of color to tulip-and-daffadill carefully landscaped lawns, and equally dazzling white and red splashes in the random dogwoods and redbuds of the countryside. Last week my wife and I enjoyed a delightful walk outside in the colorful gardens of Newfields.
All over, life abounds. In “this joyful Eastertide” however, the color that strikes me the most is green. Green buds on trees, green grass springing all around, and hints of green appearing in barren fields. It constantly brings to mind as I’m cycling one of my favorite Easter hymns, and I find myself singing it over and over as I ride:
Now the Green Blade Rises
1 Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
love lives again, that with the dead has been;
love is come again like wheat arising green.
2 In the grave they laid him, love by hatred slain,
thinking that he would never wake again;
laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen;
love is come again like wheat arising green.
3 Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
he that for three days in the grave had lain;
raised from the dead, my living Lord is seen;
love is come again like wheat arising green.
4 When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
your touch can call us back to life again,
fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been;
love is come again like wheat arising green.
Sing this Easter promise as you are blessed by the spring beauty all around (and yes, even in the midst of the predicted snow this week!!) and let it bring to you the fullness of life that our Risen Lord gives!!
A joyful Eastertide to you – be well, friends. You are loved.
Pr. Dave Schreiber