Happy Easter

Lots of years ago I decided that watching the sun rise seemed a good way to celebrate Easter, the day many people celebrate the Son of God rising from the grave. I don't make it every year. Sometimes I am just too tired, other times the weather doesn't cooperate, but I have a desire to do it every Easter. Most of the time I dress warmly and watch from my east-facing porch but there have been times when I have watched through my living room window. One year two of my daughters joined me and we startled our newspaper carrier. He didn't expect to see three people wrapped in blankets sitting on the porch that early on a Sunday morning! (He probably thought we sure were anxious to read the latest news)

Watching the sun rise can be a very spiritual experience. It takes a lot more time than I would have guessed. There is a long prelude to the sunrise when the sky starts to lighten just a bit and the birds start to greet the day with a few solos that soon blend into a chorus. I love to see the sun rise over the mountains. I try and guess where it will appear. As the sky lightens the mountains take shape as the shadows pull away. There is a great deal of anticipation as the sky grows lighter and the mountains come into focus and the birds sing louder. The buildup is long but finally you can see just a little bit of the sun and suddenly it's up and you have to look away. I remember the first time I watched the sun rise on Easter morning I was reminded of giving birth. That feeling of waiting and anticipating, the baby's head crowning, that joyous feeling when a child enters mortality...and suddenly the baby is in your arms and your eyes are filled with tears but you can't look away because it is all so incredible.

The sunrise is a truly amazing experience. When you think of how powerful the sun is and how vital it is to our existence, when you think of how complex our brains are and how we are able to see the sun and feel it's warmth and hear the birds announce a new day. So much depends on the rising of the sun and yet we sometimes sleep through the event or hardly give it a thought. It isn't hard to see why we human beings can fail to see miracles.

A hymn that comes into my mind even before Easter is Christ the Lord is Risen Today. I remember playing it on the stereo one day and stopping to sing it out loud and strong with the MormonTabernacle Choir. I felt joy in my whole being, a joy I didn't fully comprehend but I joy that I knew it was right to feel. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he lived his life to teach us how to make our way back to our heavenly home to live with our Heavenly Father. I believe he took upon himself our sins to pay the price so that we could through repentance live with God again. He was the only one who could pay that price. I believe he not only suffered under the incomprehensible weight of all the sins of mankind but that he also felt our fears, our sorrows, our doubts, our griefs, and every pain that we can feel so that we are not alone in our suffering. He understands. I believe he willingly gave his life on the cross. I believe he rose from the tomb and overcame death so that we too can rise again. He did all of these things out of a pure love for his father and a willingness to obey, and out of a pure and unconditional love for each one of us. God our Father and his son Jesus Christ our brother and redeemer want our happiness. This I know.

Can you imagine what it must have been like for the disciples of Jesus after serving with him and listening to him teach and watching him perform miracles and having him wash their feet, to see him tormented and mocked and crucified and sealed in a tomb and then to see that tomb empty? Can you imagine what it would have been like to be there and to see him standing before you again and to touch the nail prints in his hands and in his feet and the wound in his side? Can you imagine what you would feel in your heart?

Even people who don't believe in God or who do not believe that Jesus is the Christ cannot deny the renewal of the earth this time of year. The grass that was dead grows greener each day, the bare branches of the trees have tender buds, flowers bloom out of earth that was cold and hard...Everywhere you look there is an empty tomb. Alma, a prophet in the Book of Mormon, said, "All things denote there is a God". Spring brings new life and hope of continued life. The rising sun brings hope of a new day filled with promise. The rising of the Son of God brings hope of endless days and eternal happiness.

I highly recommend watching the sun rise. If you can't see it, you can hear the birds greet it, if you can't hear the birds, you can feel the sun on your face and be closer to it than you think.
Happy Easter! I hope the view from your window is one of new life.