he is risen!

growing up in the church, our pastor would make the exclamation, 'he is risen!' and then everyone would exclaim in return, 'he is risen indeed!'
i always liked that.
i always found easter meaningful.
yet i would wake up to easter mornings like today where i see a helicopter dropping eggs from the sky (actually causing injuries), as kids trample each other in a mad rush to grab their candy, and it would just bother me.
not because I don't think kids should have fun but more because what happened on Friday gets lost....   what Sunday remembers gets lost... 
to me Friday is just as significant in some ways as Sunday....  a man was beaten within an inch of his life, stripped and mocked, tortured and left to die suffocating while literally nailed with stakes to a piece of wood....
...and all in the name of love and a belief that this world could be something much better, much more redemptive, if we adopted a similar way of living in peace and care for those around us....  even to the point of death if such a life required this to live it with integrity.....
I don't apologize that the eggs bother me.  the only way I have found to truly observe this weekend while maintaining its meaning for me, is in silence....  holding the memory in deep respect as well as those who have since managed to approximate this call to a life consumed by love for all.
its a most simple calling, but the most difficult in so many ways.
today I am thankful for what easter celebrates....  for the life and passion exemplified by jesus....  for the redemption that easter represents...  the hope that darkness can be turned to light....
Peace to all of you, my friends and family. 
Peace.