Celebrating again

Easter is over! The last traces of the chocolate eggs have now disappeared and those DIY jobs that the TV adverts made you guilty about have been completed - haven't they?
We are now settled back into our usual routines - apart from a few blips for the May and Spring Bank Holidays.
Our attentions now turn to the summer, to exam time for some of us; getting out in the garden; enjoying the light evenings or even enjoying the sound of leather on willow for the rest of us!
Easter - that celebration that so often acts in our minds as the pivot between spring and summer - has been and gone.
Or has it? Certainly it has, as far as the world would have it! But for us, as Christians, it should remain in the forefront of our lives throughout the year.
The gift of new life that we receive through the resurrection of Jesus is not a one-off event to be merely ticked off on the calendar and packed away until Easter Eggs appear in the shops again. Every day is a day of Easter celebration for us. The forgiveness, new life and the hope that Jesus brings are renewed, for us, every day.
Easter is a celebration of God's love and grace that is his gift to us all. It is not constrained by time or place, season or festival, but is ours to receive at all times and in all places from now until the end of time. It opens up a continuing new way of life for us all.
At the end of May, we will be celebrating another great Christian festival - that of Pentecost - when we will be remembering that first outpouring of the Holy Spirit among the apostles in Jerusalem, after Christ's ascension into heaven and in fulfilment of Jesus’ promise to send a ‘helper' who will remain in us always, (John 14:15-17) who will reveal the truth about God and will lead us into all the truth (John 16: 13).
This is another reason not to pack Easter away: the sign of a people who are living the new life that Jesus secured for us is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives - guiding, leading and protecting each one of us.
Just as every day is an Easter Day so, too, every day is a Pentecost Day - as we experience the grace of God in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, although your diary and calendar may tell you otherwise… Happy Easter again!

by Graham Clarke.