There’s an unspoiled freshness about morning that I’ve always loved. It’s my very favorite part of the day because it holds a bit of mystery and potential and even promise. I like thinking that it’s morning somewhere all day long. I especially like it that the real Easter message came to the world early in the morning at the entrance to an empty tomb—a very different scene from a dark Friday afternoon. That morning’s message said Friday’s events were not the end of the story.
And two thousand years later, it’s still not the end of the story. God changed history and the human condition, my condition, forever. He’s still writing His story of freedom in our lives.
Earlier this week, I wrote about my most poignant Easter as I led the Easter Sunrise Service in a prison in Fort Worth, TX. That experience spoke to me about the freedom that Resurrection brings – real freedom, the kind that makes you glad to get up every morning and makes our eternities worth shouting about!
Here’s a more poetic picture of that fierce joy we celebrate this and every Easter morning:
Freedom’s Morn
Dark of night dispelled by light,
Heavy stone moved by might
Unearthing
An empty borrowed tomb.
Followers awed by finding
Shapeless linen strips once
Entwining
The body of the crucified Christ.
Witnesses surprised by sight
Of messengers cascading in light
Announcing
“He’s not here, He’s gone.”
The temple veil torn,
Sunrise on freedom’s morn,
Revealing
Our price to freedom was paid.
Easter’s song sung and victory won,
No longer shackled, but
Freed . . .
For Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed.
Image: “Tapatio Sunrise 1,” Bill Nichols
