If you are Hope, the Fairest Flower in Christendom, and you face Jamaica’s sun, then you need an umbrella. This is not good or bad, just what is true. Umbrellas, especially on beaches, especially on trips, are not always something a woman has with her even if she is generally prepared.
What is a lady to do? She borrows an umbrella. It is not her umbrella, she has a different umbrella at home, but the umbrella that is coming is not nearly good enough for today. The burning sun is pouring down now and she needs an umbrella today.
Thankfully, there was a kind soul who let us borrow an umbrella.
The problem was not the number of umbrellas, but the lack of umbrellas by the one who needed one. If you have an umbrella today, remember those who wait. Pray. Share. We could use it!
Here is a truth: there are enough umbrellas for all, if we only learn to share. When you need some Easter, somebody has some. Ask. If you are having an Easter, open your prayers and the super-abundant grace of the holiday to all.
What if you need some Easter and Easter is not tomorrow, but next week? This the case for the world’s Orthodox Christians. That means for me Easter is still one week away. If things worked as they should, we would have a week to contemplate, then grace would come. The Son would rise in the East, as He always does, and all would be well. What if, because things are broken, we need Easter early? The sinfulness of the world means that the cosmos does not move in divine time, so some of my friends who are Orthodox could use a little Easter just now.
What do they do? What can you do for them?
All of us can move from experiencing only the superficial, this present cosmos, and ask for the divine grace to step for one moment into the timelessness of God’s existence. In that paradise, Now is the Day of the Lord. Now is Easter in the courts of Heaven. Jesus is alive, even if this reality will not be manifest in the church’s calendar for twenty-four hours or eight more days.
The eternality of Easter is why it does not greatly matter doctrinally whether those of us, trapped in time, celebrate Easter tomorrow or in a week. Easter is.
Of course, God gives grace to His people as God chooses. The cosmos and the seasons were built to bring us the mercy, energy, and strength we need, but sinful people often run up a tab on our account that we cannot pay. What to do? God often chooses to use His children as a means of grace. That’s why we can bear each other’s burdens in love and so fulfill the law of Christ.
The good news, Western Friends, that as you move into Eastern joy, you can pray for us. You are moving from the despair of Saturday to the joy of Sunday. The holiday, the grace where eternity meets the calendar is here for you. Could you loan some friends your umbrella?
Pray for us, those in the East facing persecution and troubles. Pray for Eastern Christians in the Western parts of the world who face personal pain and could use some Easter. Could you loan your umbrella? Open up your heart and pray for those who need the grace that is needed just now!
The good news is that we can return the favor next week. Every Sunday, I was told as a boy, is a little Easter, but sometimes we need a big Easter. One of Heaven’s solutions to the evil that draws down our grace too quickly is the super-abundance of someone else. We need a holiday, someone else is having one. If they lift us up, let us share their umbrella, then the evil folk that drained us are checked. We get Easter by borrowing a bit when needed. If you find yourself on holiday, the holiest of holidays, remember those who might not yet be there, but need to be there.
Pray for us. Pray for my friends. We pray for you. There are umbrellas enough if we share.
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