PJ’s Page – 
I have noted numerous times during this Lenten season, that Epiphany was too short for my liking this year. That time between The Feast of Epiphany (January 6th) and the beginning of Lent was only five weeks long. The liturgical calendar sometimes finds it as long as eight weeks, since Easter is a moveable feast and Lent is the forty days (not including Sundays) prior to Easter.
But I have resisted this Lent….resisted the Lenten disciplines, resisted the planning of Lenten services and mid week meals. I needed more time in the light of Epiphany.
And now it is Easter….the earth tells us it is so, the liturgy shouts it with every Alleluia, and our hearts turn again toward the promise of new life.
The truth is that we need Easter in every season….we need the promise of resurrection and life to hold us up through life’s challenges and to resound in life’s joys.
We need Easter when we sit at a bedside or stand in line at the food bank or file for unemployment. We need Easter in the courtroom and in the classroom and in the hospital room. We need Easter at the graveside. In these dark places, we are reminded that death did not have the final word, that the tomb did not hold Jesus, and that when we walk in shadows, light is promised.
One of the plots in the Giving Garden was planted last fall with bulbs. Today, as I look out of the office window, I see that it is filled with daffodils and hyacinth and tulips! This plot was planted in part so that we could grow flowers for the flowering of the cross on Easter morning. How wonderful that the earth in this place is offering to us her bright gifts in celebration of life.
As we go through the fifty days of the Easter season (from Easter Sunday up to Pentecost) may you be upheld with the promise of resurrection and life. Regardless of the particular joys or challenges that are your day’s companion, may that word rest in your heart…the same word we resurrect after a long Lenten season…
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In peace and prayer,
Pastor Julie G. Hutson