Is it over? Did I miss it?

The last egg hunt has ended.  The baskets and candy are half price, and the lovers of Peeps are stashing a bunch before the supply is gone. You are now entering the season of 50 New and Exciting Ways to Eat Hardboiled Eggs! Easter is done.  At least it is at WalMart where all things Easter are in the Very Deep Discount aisle.

Is this really true?  One and done?  Did I miss it? All this fuss is about bunnies and chocolate eggs?

Not really. According to the story, when the women found the tomb empty, no one believed them.  Some of the men then went to see and behold! The tomb was empty!  There are stories of appearances and angels and even an earthquake.

Tell that story today and they still won't believe you.  It is an outrageous story.  The dead one was now alive.  He walked out of his own funeral.  He is living a new kind of life.  Outrageous.

So folks tells stories about crocuses and butterflies and renewal of the spirit; they are substituted for this crazy story about a dead man walking.  We understand green sprouts pushing through the thawing ground of our winter earth.  We are lifted by the return of life to our winter world of the north.  Daffodils and tulips and lilies and Alleluia.

Except that is not Easter nor is it resurrection.  That is not the world being turned upside down and inside out.  That is not the power of the Divine beyond the visible of this world.  That is a fraud.

Easter is not like anything else.  Easter is not a metaphor nor is it a Feel Good story about overcoming the odds.  Easter is as unique as the word unique can engender.  Easter is LIFE even when we cannot understand it, or most especially when we cannot understand it.

It is almost impossible to believe, but on those days, or in those moments when you do really truly believe.......it will turn your world around.