Alleluia!

Triduum services are over, and Easter is here! Although you may not know it from the damp, gray weather Spring is here and the Lord is risen indeed. Our Easter Vigil sunrise service went pretty well, even in spite of some last-minute changes due to an impending thunderstorm. After the service and a wonderful brunch, I went back to bed for a long time. In the afternoon, Luke & I went with our friend at family-letter to the Chicago Botanical Gardens, which was wonderful. Ruth Meyers has preached a good sermon on noticing spring coming forth around us, and noticing Resurrection in a world where its easier to see the death and sadness. (Thats a pretty basic summary, but it fits my point here.) To hear that sermon, and then go see the beginnings of spring in action was just a perfect Easter devotion. And now as I sit at my computer, I'm noticing that the tree outside my window has tiny little green leaves out too. One of my favorite Easter hymns is "Now The Green Blade Riseth". Especially if you have lived in rainy, gray, Midwestern springs your whole life, the joy of Easter is simply magnified by the whole earth.

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain
wheat that in dark earth many days has lain
love lives againg, that with the dead has been
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green