We are nearing the end of our Lenten journey, and the destination is starting to take shape over the nearing horizon. Too often, we think we’ve arrived when we hit Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter Sunday. In reality, the resurrection is not the end of our journey, but the beginning of our new life in Christ. We start the Easter Season on April 1st, but it continues the following seven weeks. We have 40 days to prepare for Easter and 50 days to celebrate it. The Sunday after Easter is normally lightly attended compared to others, and that’s always struck me as odd. We spend so much time preparing and so little time celebrating. Easter means new life and that we will never be alone.
Dr. Tony Compolo says that when he was a boy growing up in a congested and bustling city, his mother arranged for a teenage girl who lived nearby to walk home with him at the end of the day. For this, she was paid a nickel a day. But Tony rebelled in the second grade and told his mother, "I'll walk myself to school, and, if you give me a nickel a week, I will be extra careful. You can keep the other twenty cents and we'll all be better off."
After a period of pleading and begging, little Tony finally got his way. For the next two years he walked himself back and forth to school. It was an eight-block walk with many streets to cross, but he was careful and didn't talk to strangers or get distracted along the way.
Years later at a family party, he bragged about his independence and reminded his family of how he had taken care of himself as a boy. His mother laughed and added the rest of the story. "Did you really think you were alone?" she said. "Every morning when you left for school, I left with you. I walked behind you all the way. When you got out of school at 3:30 in the afternoon, I was there. I always kept myself hidden, but I was there and I followed you all the way home. I just wanted to be there for you in case you needed me."
As we come closer to completing our trip, I hope you will feel God’s presence in the preparation and the celebration.
In Hope and Confidence,
Read the Gospels in 40 Days: John 20-21
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