Alleluia! Alleluia!

We wish you a very blessed Easter. May you see that “the world is charged with the grandeur of God” (Gerard Manley Hopkins). May you take off your shoes in reverence, acknowledging that the “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God” (Elizabeth Barrett Browning). May you open your eyes in wonder as you recognise the Risen Jesus in all around you.  And, with the words of Edwina Gately, may you go out boldly and tell all peoples …

Breaking through the powers of darkness

bursting from the stifling tomb

he slipped into the graveyard garden

to smell the blossomed air.

Tell them, Mary, Jesus said,

that I have journeyed far

into the darkest deeps I’ve been

in nights without a star.

Tell them Mary, Jesus said,

that fear will flee my light

that though the ground will tremble

and despair will stalk the earth

I hold them firmly by the hand

through terror to new birth.

Tell them, Mary, Jesus said,

the globe and all that’s made

is clasped to God’s great bosom

they must not be afraid

for though they fall and die, he said,

and the black earth wrap them tight

they will know the warmth

of God’s healing hands

in the early morning light.

Tell them, Mary, Jesus said,

smelling the blossomed air,

tell my people to rise with me

to heal the Earth’s despair.

(“Tell Them” by Edwina Gately)

WATCH: It was Finished – Bryan & Katie Torwalt

CONSIDER: Beautiful Things – Gungor