Easter came early this year...

Advent is about journey and anticipation and preparation. Christmas is about a gift and joy and the presence of the Living God breaking into darkness. Lent is about reflection and atonement and forgiveness. Easter is about life and victory and new life in Christ. Pentecost is about the birthday of the body of Christ, the Way, the whole church of believers. That is the church year in a nutshell. What if they happen within the span of three weeks, or a week, or one night? This year Christmas and Easter collided.

Twenty days is not long to go from confirmed diagnosis to eternal life, but that was my father’s Advent, Lent and Christmas/Easter journey. He invited in friends, family and loved ones to witness his journey. He worked very hard to prepare my sisters and his twin brother’s daughters for a garden moment when he would die. I have never wished for Advent nor Lent to be longer, but I wished for one more day--one more night--one more morning.

However, I saw him say good bye with “sure and certain knowledge” of his faith. Our last night, we lay awake at the winter solstice. I sang; I prayed; friends all over the country watched and waited with me. I did fall asleep, like Peter, but the “bleak mid-winter” was somehow sweeter. A friend’s church offered me rest after this journey and named the truth of the evening…”midwifing.” You see, my father said many times, “God did a good job birthing me the first time and will do as well the second.”

The next evening I returned home; one of my other sisters arrived to be with our mother. I got the expected call just before midnight. I exhaled. The breath I was holding was released, as was the pain and sadness of the last 20 days. The next day I walked into Second Church and saw the one person, the only one, who had met and visited with my dad. I was embraced by hope and a reminder that God is present now as then. Three days later, on Christmas Eve, a friend sang “In the Bleak Midwinter;” the congregation celebrated Holy Communion, and I answered “Merry Christmas” greetings with “Happy Easter.” A friend replied, “Alleluia.” You see, Easter came early this year.

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