Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Thoughts On Resurrection Day

When I was in college, back in the 80's, I remember getting up at some ridiculously early hour of the morning to drive down to Cadillac Mountain for the sunrise on Easter morning. We stood there in the cold and sang hymns like Christ the Lord Is Risen Today and Up from the Grave He Arose. Then I shared a devotional and we watched the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean.

I remember another year standing on the beach at Lamoine State Park, watching the ocean waves break over the rocks, while ominous gray clouds hid the sunrise from our view. Still we sang hymns, listened to a message, and celebrated the dawn of Resurrection Day.

These days Easter doesn't seem the same as it used to. Don't get me wrong, I think it's an important celebration. All you need to do is read my writing It Felt Like the End of the World, Rustling, Whispering, Dying, and Possibilities to know that I consider resurrection to be central to a life of hope.

But these days the holiday seems - like Thanksgiving - to be more about family than it is about its intended purpose. In fact, this year, since Easter came too early in the season to do a sunrise service, the only thing that distinguished Easter from Thanksgiving in my mind is the fact that, since it was Sunday, we had a church service.

But other than that, the day seems to be about getting together with family for a large gathering and an equally large spread of food. And there's nothing wrong with that - I looked forward to Easter all month long, precisely because I would get to see brothers and sisters-in-law and nephews and nieces (well, one niece!) that I rarely get to see throughout the year.

Perhaps it's unhealthy for me to see Easter more as a day of family celebration than a day of resurrection celebration.

On the other hand, having lost a young friend in a tragic accident a year and a half ago, perhaps I have learned to celebrate resurrection on a daily basis, and no longer need a day set aside to remind me of it.

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