Easter--Something Happened Here

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.

A little boy stood with his parents at the Grand Canyon. He looked out at the vistas, the colors, the vastness and whispered, “Something happened here.” And when it comes to Easter I feel the same way. 

Years ago my friend, Temp Sparkman lost his little girl to leukemia. I first read his words in the Crescent Hill Baptist Church newsletter where he was on the staff. I have printed his poem as a handout for many grief groups. This is my gift to us all this Easter:

Was the Grass Ever Green

“Was the grass ever green

Were the sounds of birds really clearly heard

And did we picnic in the park only six months ago

Here in midwinter they seem so far away

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

And seem out ahead for all time

Were things really ever green

And will spring come back again?

Yes, the spring will return

The gray, dull days 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 new 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 us will be lifted

Joy will speak her acknowledgment 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 to us.

The conflicts now engaging our energy

   will be worked though

No wind will sweep them from us

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, though apart

The tensions tearing at our being will be resolved

We will not be destroyed.

Were things really ever green

And will the spring come back again

Yes, yes as sure as e’re it were here

Yes, yes as sure as God is 

The spring will return 

And it will be green again.”