“By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope.”
As I went through the readings earlier this week, I couldn’t help but feel like they were very familiar and then I got to the gospel and remembered this is the week of doubting Thomas. And as my memory is getting a little challenged with each passing birthday, I had to look through my files and confirm that I had the opportunity last year to give the reflection on the Second Sunday of Easter as well. For a second I thought well I don’t want to focus on doubting Thomas again, so what else speaks to me?
It is nearly a year later in what seems like a very long year, one that has brought many conflicts and uncertainty, celebrations and travel farther than we have ever been before. And in that year’s time I’ve had a chance to listen to the readings again, to celebrate a cycle of Christmas, Lent and now Easter. It is another year to reflect and listen to a message that may be hard during challenging times.
And it is still the season of Easter, the time to celebrate the resurrection because Christ is risen. The resurrection from the dead was God’s promise, that we might have a new life in him. In the past week though I have been thinking about resurrection not just from the dead, but in our day to day lives.
Last weekend I had a friend visiting who told me about her brother-in-law who at 40 years old had to have quadruple bypass heart surgery. She mentioned in particular that the quadruple bypass surgery was like a second birthday. Over the course of the week in my curiosity I looked up what happens during that surgery and the one thing that caught my attention amidst general amazement that surgeons can do this – is that the patient’s heart and lungs are stopped and a machine does the work of those body parts while the surgeons create a detour in the heart’s arteries with veins from different parts of the patient’s body. And then the heart and lungs are started up again and hopefully the patient is able to recover and extend their life. That second birthday makes sense, it’s almost like a rebirth.
The impact though was beyond just her brother-in-law’s health, her husband has paid more attention to his health, seeing doctors for the first time in years and checking his heart – finding that his arteries are clogged though not to the point where surgery is required but other treatment and a change of lifestyle might be beneficial. In a confluence of events she also had a health scare and combined – her and her husband are taking greater steps to manage their health, being mindful of the opportunity they have to change their diets and move more – making a rebirth of sorts for themselves.
In less drastic fashion last Sunday, I decided that one of my plants needed more room to grow and another one might be on its way out. A couple months ago my cousin, friend and I each bought a small money tree with the goal of all of us keeping them alive. We’ve had some mixed results, my cousin showed me hers and unfortunately the plant did not do well and she mentioned that in her attempt to save the plant she removed the stems that had died, yet it didn’t help. It occurred to me last Sunday night that I should also remove two of the dead five stems in my plant so that the others could thrive. So while I should have been getting ready for bed, I ended up repotting two plants because I wanted to re-pot the money tree in the pot of the plant that I thought was dying. What I discovered in the process was that the plant that only had three leaves still had an extensive root system that seemed intact. I didn’t have much faith in what I was doing, however I put that one in a different pot and to my surprise, I saw two shoots coming out of the plant the other day. I am hoping in a new space and with a bit of attention it is being rejuvenated to grow again. And so far the money tree seems to be doing ok in its new pot as well.
These are two very different examples of what looked to me like resurrections this past week. Easter was the greatest resurrection yet I believe it calls on us to see the opportunities to recognize new life and how our actions can impact others. To see where change is needed to fully appreciate the opportunities and life we have on earth and be good stewards of God’s message. We may not know the ripples of our actions, yet I can only imagine that if we let our lights shine, in what may seem like dark times, those ripples will come together to be brighter than what we can see.
Having someone share a different perspective and see us in a new light can be exactly what we need. In a time when civilizations are being threatened we need to remember that creation and our existence is amazing. As Astronaut Victor Glover remarked when reflecting on Easter, “In all of this emptiness — this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist – together. I think as we go into Easter Sunday thinking about all the cultures all around the world —whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not — this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are and that we are the same thing. And that we got to get through this together.”
Together we continue to celebrate Easter, the miracle of the resurrection, a lord who cares for us, the new births we see every day and the light that we carry. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.”