We Don't Know What Happened
We're not sure what happened. But we know what it's like when someone appears whose message we feel offers hope, who inspires us with new ways of living.
We know what it's like when they fall short of our expectations, or worse, when they are cut down by the forces of hate and bigotry.
We're not sure what happened. But we know what it's like when someone has grown profoundly into our own lives, who seems as much a part of our living as our own breathing.
We know what it's like when death takes them from us, perhaps prematurely, and the empty place now in our souls is much like an empty tomb.
We're not sure what happened. But we know what it's like to feel sorrow and loss, despair and grief. We know the waves of tears and the thoughts of the past which flow through us.
We know that memories and stories begin to fill the emptiness; our lives are shored up with a different presence which will live with us all our lives.
We're not sure what happened. But we know what it's like to realize, to have it dawn upon us, that what we have known and loved lives on with us and within us, forever, a part of who we are.
We know that somehow, in our hearts and souls, resurrection is real; not that of the body, but of the spirit — a spirit renewed, even reborn, in the midst of our lives and our living.
We're not sure what happened. But we know there is a difficult hope, a faith, that through whatever sorrow or grief we are feeling, there is also a growing sense of grace and gratitude, of joy and thanksgiving, in the mysterious and abiding astonishment of being human.
In this wonder, may we find strength within our own sense of Easter.
As a multi-faith tradition, Unitarian Universalists can feel a little confused by Easter. Some of us are happy to be called followers of Jesus, and others claim other allegiances. For many of us the question "What is life before death?" is more critical than concern for an afterlife.
Yet our spirits are buoyed by the story of resurrection: the mystery of it, the quiet hope, the simple promise that something of us and those we love continues even when our bodies do not. We humans yearn for that simple and profound experience, when, after a season of grief, there comes grace.
Where is grace emerging in your life today?
