Fri, Mar. 29
... Senseless rejection
On a day like today...
I haven't been caught up in all the Easter preparations this year. It doesn't feel like Easter, really. There's still too much snow on the ground (although for Calgary, that shouldn't surprise me), and I haven't been involved with all the preparations at church for the production.
Years gone by of dress rehearsals for weeks before the show; dress rehearsals on Saturday afternoons, Sunday afternoons, nearly every night the week before the show.
This weekend is the celebration of the event that defines human history, and all I can think about is the show?! *sigh* That's always been one of the defining events of my Easter celebration, though. It's been what's taken me past the words on a page, past the stories I've heard a thousand thousand times, and into what's real. Not just watching it, but living it. It's taken me into the story.
I remember one Easter, about four or five years ago, during one of the dress rehearsals for the show, standing off to the side after my part was over. It was the end of the play, and just getting to the Resurrection scene... The choir was singing, the women who went to the tomb were running out, excited, and I started to bawl. I was so overwhelmed by the power of the story; by the love of it all; by the grace of everything going. I was standing there, in the middle of the room, with tears and snot running down my face, taking in huge gulping gasps of air, almost choking on my tears. Steve, the pastor, came over to me, gave me a hug, and told me to look up. Look at the stage, where the Resurrection scene was being played out.
"This is the happy part," he said. "This is the happy ending."
Today is the sad beginning of the story. We get so focused on Easter Sunday, that sometimes we forget about the pain it took to get there... but today remembers that. Today is the hopeless, loveless, senseless rejection that seemed to be. Today is the time to remember that even in the middle of that, it wasn't an ultimate rejection. That even in the middle of the darkest night... there's still hope.
Oh, and by the way, go read this. Do. Now. It's an amazing article. Go Now!
infinite || abyss
posted at 12:58 p.m.
