It can be hard to remember that we are in the season of Lent. Lent is a season we can count on, we can expect, every year.

This year so very, very much has changed. So many events, so many happenings, have been set aside, postponed or cancelled because of a virus.

Lent builds to something we call “Passion Week.” In Passion Week, we focus more on God’s passionate love for us. Yes, we always hold that is true that God loves us amazingly, but in Holy Week we remember the passionate work of God’s Beloved Son Jesus Christ. We remember that terrible, terrible Friday — Good Friday — when Jesus died on the cross. There was that Saturday, that quiet time after…that time after the terrible. Saturday can seem to last so interminably long. But then…ohhhh…but then…

It seems to me that we are, you and I and the whole wide world, in a Good Friday time with this virus. The bad news is still hitting. The first Good Friday was so hard on the early disciples. It was a long night.

Even when Good Friday ended, there was that day of wondering:  Holy Saturday.

But then…ohhhh…but then there was and there will be the time of resurrection! Even before Jesus went to the cross, He told the disciples that it was coming.

Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.     Matthew 16:21

We are truly in a difficult time. We might be — with this virus — in our own Good Friday or in Holy Saturday. Easter is coming! Because of God’s great passion for us, Easter is coming.

We will probably mark the particular date of Easter this year in a very different way. We just don’t know. We do know that the restrictions around this virus will end.  We do know that a day of celebration, a day of Easter in its fullness, is coming.

Tears may stay for the night but joy comes in the morning. ~Psalm 30:5

We know by faith that our celebration is coming. When we come back together, when we hear the Cherub Choir and Joy Choir sing, when we hear the bell choirs ring out and the full choir sing, we WILL celebrate!

I am convinced that no virus or social distancing or restrictions will keep God’s love and power and grace from us. Even more… “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~ Romans 8:38-39

May God Bless You to hold to the love and strength God showed in Jesus’ Passion! May God bless you to hold this power and love that will bring us, each of us, into the celebration of Resurrection!

Your Brother in Christ,

Rhodie