Day 20 - Waking up

So we have entered that time again - Lent, Holy Week, Easter and the aftermath.

It doesn't seem all that long ago we were putting the Christmas decorations away, and now the shops are full of Easter eggs and all around us we just see the first glimpses of promised spring.

This is such a special time of year. I mean don't get me wrong Christmas is great - all those festivities and lights, food and parties, but as a Christian people, for us, Easter is where it really is at. For if Jesus hadn't made that sacrifice on our behalf, we would not have had the opportunity to be reconciled with our Father God. Have you thought what may have happened if he hadn't been raised to life again after 3 days? Yes, he would still have been a good man, a great storyteller, an inspirational man, who did wonderful things but would those events have lived beyond him if we hadn't seen him suffer and die on a cross, be buried in a tomb and then resurrected to life once more? Would he have been shown to be the Son of God without the events of Easter?

The renewal we see each year at this time, as our gardens wake up from their winter slumber, is surely emphasised by the remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Does it help us to want to look to renew our own lives? To see how we can walk closer to God? To ask what we can do in his service now? To resurrect ourselves to a new way of being, loving and caring for others?

Perhaps on this Mindful Monday we can take an opportunity to pause and really look around us. Take a moment to look at the signs of new creation in our gardens or in the park or the hedgerows. To see nature waking up from her winter slumber and to be mindful of all that is just as God created it. Take a moment to give thanks and to recognise God alive in and to the world he made.

I do hope, and pray, that we will all be renewed and revived as we head into this most wonderful time of the year ... May God give us opportunities to share his love and his story with those around us.

Let us not look for the living amongst the dead, but again this Easter experience the wonder of the empty tomb, knowing without doubt, and rejoicing in hope, that Jesus isn't here ... for he has risen!!

Catherine Booton