By now you’ve probably eaten all those jelly beans and chocolate eggs the Easter bunny brought, and you’ve put away the baskets to wait till next year.
Guess what? It’s still Easter. “Eastertide” we call it. The 50 days after Easter. Lent was only 40 days—plus those Sundays that came in between—but Easter is officially celebrated even longer than that. Up until Pentecost. A reminder of how crucial the Resurrection is to our faith.
Here are some ways you can keep celebrating.
1) Sing some Alleluias. Or say them. And of course, pray them. Or make it an Hallelujah, like that chorus from Handel’s Messiah. They are all reminders to keep thanking God. Write down those blessings. Put them on your mental map. And give every blessing an Alleluia.
2) Look for Jesus in your life. It always amazes me how Jesus’s beloved followers didn’t recognize Him at first on Easter. Mary, when she saw Him outside the empty tomb thought, he was the gardener. He walked with two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus, and they were clueless as to who He was, until He broke bread with them. The doubting Thomas wanted to see His wound before he would believe.
Is it any surprise, then, that we forget to see Him? Look around though. He is here. He is always here. He can be seen in that friend who called at just the right moment or the loved one who sent that note or the words you read in a devotional. Let the veil be lifted from your eyes. See Jesus in the world around you.
3) Pray with the Creation. For those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere it is spring, and in every flower bursting forth and bud blossoming we can feel that power and rejoice in it. The sun rises earlier and sets later with every day. We let go of those heavy winter clothes. Our hearts are lighter.
All these things can be opportunities to connect with the Creation and the Creator who made it possible and makes it possible. Jesus’s victory over death seems to surround us.
4) Live Jesus’s commands. We hear what Jesus said on a Sunday at church. Or in something we read. And it’s easy enough to forget it. But one of the reasons Jesus came back and is always here is to remake the world in God’s image. What He said are not just words. They are guides for life. And to that effect…
5) Love your neighbor as yourself. It looks so simple but it can be so hard. We learn to love ourselves by loving our neighbors—by loving even our enemies. When we love ourselves we cannot help but love others.
Love is an active verb. Not passive. Invest yourself in others. Send that email, write that text, make that call. We can find Jesus in the “least of these,” those who aren’t on our usual road map. Give. Give. Give.
The Lord is risen. The Lord is risen and living here among us now. Happy Easter.
