Easter Hope for Today

I've had this picture in my office for years and years. I look at it when I need hope. Maybe it will help you too.

Years ago my Minister-friend lost his little girl with leukemia. Is there anything that could be worse than losing your child? All those hopes and dreams they had for her were just gone. Weeks later I picked up his church’s newsletter and this is what he had written:

“Was the grass really ever green

Were the sounds of birds clearly heard

And did we picnic in the park only six months to go

Here in midwinter they seem so far away

The naked trees, the laden skies seems always to have been

And seem out ahead for all time

Were things ever green

And will spring come back again?

Yes, ther spring will return

The gray, duhldays of cold will pass

The routine now imprisoning us will be broken up

A new excitement will be awakened by new possibilities

The despair which now engulfs us will subside

A word of hope will come to us

Our presumption that all is lost

 will be replaced by a renewed expectancy

Future will become a possibility again

The crush of demands will not dominate us forever

Out of liberation we will learn to choose

And in our choices to be secure.

The sadness now weighing upon will be lifted

Joy will speak her acknowledgement of of grief

 and will sound her call to us

The cause of sadness will not have vanished

But joy will come in spite of it

We will laugh again

We will sing and dance

We will celebrate the life now given us.

The conflicts now engaging our energy 

 will be worked through

No wind will sweep them from us

We will go through them

And we will survive

Redemption will come of our transactions

Relationships will be rescued and restored

And where breaks are too deep to be one,

Healing will come in time, through apart

The tensions tearing at our being will be resolved

We will not be destroyed.

Were things really ever green

And bring will come back again

Yes, yes as sure as e’re int were here

Yes, yes, as sure as God is

The spring will return

And it will be spring again.”

             —G. Temp Sparkman

Surrounded by the too-muchness all around us—maybe Easter has come just in time. It reminds us that even in this hard, hard time it is not the end. Look closely at the picture …read this incredible poem of hope. And God bless us all.

photo by RC isidro / flickr

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com