Palm Sunday was a day of celebration. The people waving palm branches and crying “Hosanna” had no idea of the events that would take place within the week.
Our lives are like that.
One minute we’re celebrating, the next, we’re devastated.
It’s probably good that we can not see into the future or we’d loose the joy of the moment. We truly must live each moment to its fullest, not digressing either into regret or always looking to the future to the exclusion of living today.
That doesn’t mean we don’t look backward or forward, but that we don’t let either rob us of today.
We can, and should, look back and learn from our mistakes and successes. We can anticipate and plan for tomorrow, but too many people fail to thoroughly enjoy the life they’re given because they’re stuck in either the past or the “if only” of the future.
This Sunday we celebrate Easter - Resurrection Sunday. The followers of Jesus were in despair. All their hopes were destroyed. Some had hoped for an earthly king to save them from the political turmoil plaguing their land. They saw him crucified. They saw him put in the grave.
They thought it was over.
For about 36 hours they mourned not seeing that this grief was the doorway to a greater joy, new life and a future unimaginable.
On Sunday morning (the first day of the week - our Monday, if you will), several of His followers visited the tomb in order to complete the death preparations. Because of the Jewish observance of the Sabbath (sunset Friday until sunset Saturday), they had put the body of Jesus in the tomb without the full preparations they would normally accord a body.
At sunrise on Sunday, the visitors to the tomb were surprised, shocked to find the tomb stone rolled away and the body gone. As events unfolded, they discovered He had arisen from the dead, claiming victory over sin and death.
Their grief turned to surprise and later, delight, as they encountered the risen Lord.
The seasons provide a beautiful, simple analogy to life: Spring - new birth;
Winter - death.
Some of the sweetest people I’ve known have suffered the greatest losses and pain, but they don’t let that define them. They learn and grow from the pain. The moist poignant analogy is seen in botany - a seed must die to itself before a new plant, a new flower is born.
As we celebrate spring and Easter, let us see new life spring forth from death both in the flora and fauna and in our own lives. Each of us has areas of life to which we must die - regrets, selfishness, greed, gluttony - and areas in which we can choose to live anew - rejoicing, self denial and unselfishness, self-restraint, generosity.
Rejoice and celebrate new beginnings!
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Editor’s note: Annette Beard is the managing editor of The Times of Northeast Benton County, chosen the best small weekly newspaper in Arkansas three years in a row. She can be reached at [email protected].
Opinion, Pages 4 on 03/27/2013