The Morning After

Holiday eves excite me.  So much preparation, anticipation, even frustration.  It’s all part of the package of getting ready for the big day tomorrow.  My biggest eve was always Christmas Eve.  That strange mixture of excitement and stress that finally moved out of the house around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon.  At that point, everything was done – except when the kids were small and I was usually still “doing” the next morning as they came into the room where the tree was.  On that particular eve, mid-afternoon brings a sense of great peace and anticipation mixed with love.

 

Now that we are older, the eves are less of everything they were.  Not necessarily a bad thing as long as I mix the memories of perfection with the very real work that was a part.  But there is still some preparation and always the looking forward.

 

This Easter has been, I believe, the most “spiritual” one that I have experienced.  My eve experience actually started on Thursday night.  I carried a real weight that night and all day Friday.  Having the benefit of hindsight and the gospels, I know the outcome!  But God’s grace gave me a very real sense this year of the heaviness of those days.  And Saturday I spent a great deal of time thinking of the hopelessness, the frustration, even the anger of Christ’s disciples and followers.  They probably thought it was wrong to lose hope; but they couldn’t even express their misgivings aloud because it would no doubt cause a serious argument!  Added to that the tears of death and grief, and Saturday was a very dark day.

 

But Sunday!  Oh, the joy that Sunday brings.  Christ is risen!  Our pastor pointed out from Matthew 28:10 that the Savior, the risen King, who had been deserted by his followers and had every right to be angry-to distrust them-sent the message by the women for his “brothers” to meet Him in Galilee.  He reached out to them in love.  His followers met Sunday with the same joy that we do.

 

So now it is Monday, the morning after.  I always dealt with more serious dejection the morning after Christmas.  That week between the 25^th and New Year’s is still a celebrating time.  But for me, the excitement, the fun is over.  It’s like having cold weather only in January and February, but none in November and December.  I spend the morning wondering if I have the energy to face a house that looks shot out of a cannon, musing over whether the neighbors truly will talk if I leave the tree up until April.

 

I felt a little tinge of sadness this morning.  So much celebration and so many good times yesterday.  But almost immediately my spirit lifted.  Because I will spend eternity with my Lord, with King Jesus!  And He reigns today, this minute.  So much to be excited about.  And we will never have any more mornings after!

 

Revelation 21:1-5a

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them.  They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.   He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”