AfterWords | Blossoming
AfterWords is a series of reflections by contributors as they share their personal experience of God in community at The Parish on Sundays.
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A short read
by Marian Schiff
Holy Week was a difficult week for me. For the first time ever, I really allowed myself to feel the heaviness of Jesus’ crucifixion. The weight of that combined with my own personal problems, and I was in sad shape.
Fast forward to Sunday morning and I woke up feeling hope. I said to myself, “Jesus rose from the dead today!. I couldn’t wait to experience Easter Sunday at The Parish. And it did not disappoint! The service was a beautiful expression of gratitude for God’s Son—His life, death, and resurrection. The music, the Gospel readings, Jordan’s meaningful commentary—all of it was wonderful. After a difficult Holy Week, it was a refreshing reminder that with the cross, God shows us that hope lives—always.
And this evening as I sit here writing this, I am struck by another reminder of the hope God offers us in Christ. Bear with me here.
I have a cherry blossom tree in my front yard. It blooms later than most of my neighbors’ trees. All year I look forward to the day those first tiny pink buds appear.
Within days of those first buds, it blooms in full. A wild explosion of luscious pink flowers bursts into being. It’s truly breathtaking.
But as quickly as it blooms, the flowers fall and our yard is carpeted with a soft blanket of pink petals, like a pond of tears. Then the green leaves come. It always amazes me that in the span of about a month, the tree goes from barren, to tiny pink buds, to a pink floral daydream, to green and lush.
I am struck by the symbolism here. The lifecycle of my tree is a nod towards Christ. Jesus quietly waited until the right time to burst forth and capture the hearts of so many with His Gospel of Love. But as quickly as His ministry began, it ended with his physical death on the cross. He was with us in the physical realm for just a short time, then He was gone, like the flowers on my tree. But just as the leaves appeared on my tree after the flowers fell, so did Jesus rise from the grave to defeat death. His Life is evident in our hearts—the way life is evident in the green leaves on my tree.
He is risen. Love is alive! Hope is alive! He is risen!
Want to contribute to AfterWords? From poems to paintings to a child’s drawing in Parish Kids, we welcome voices from those who call the Parish home. To learn more, email info@parishanglican.org
