https://www.dropbox.com/s/xeipso88sh4ffgd/2021-04-11_Program_001_0.mp4?dl=0
Look Up! For where God is working. We’re not going back to normal. We are headed toward rebirth. That’s the promise of Easter.
hindsight
Last Easter, the shock shackled us to our couches and screens like a prison.
No one was probably okay
while we quietly scrambled for normalcy as it got up, walked away,
replaced with indwelling fear.
we all feel it now, still, a year
when we thought each day it may pass,
all we hear under our soles (souls) are stories of loss.
look down, the ground under our feet has shifted.
we miss maskless smiles, eyes
are burning with tears we have not even
had time to cry. our space has dwindled,
routines and places that feel safe,
a nagging grief, identities erased.
What are we standing on,
the shake and split, earthquake
of doubt rocks our houses. how do we know
where our feet may trod when everything
we have come to depend on has crumbled?
we struggle with grief, humans robbed of humanity.
we can’t see why everyone is losing lives and what to believe.
we know that grief and love sometimes bleed in the streets.
stories of “essential” meaning brave enough
to stare into the face of humans with eyes full of fear,
find frontline battlefields
behind sanitation stations and haz-mat suits.
stories untold of silent suffering
because we don’t know what has hit us,
don’t know if we ever will. our silent screams:
where are You now as we look down, this unstable ground,
souls showing frayed edges and scars,
our human hearts beat and linger over lights that have moved into the night
and left us here to sort through the ash of what once was.
hard to redefine what love looks like
when we were already trodding a thin line (of making it):
people crying through glass plates and hashtags over loved ones
without contact. has the darkness won?
but look, past the trees whose roots dig deep,
branches wave, the breeze moves limbs, the ease
of light glistening through. Life may be shaking from pieces
that we are weak with trying to pick up and hold together. >> look up.
we have weathered the ravage >> look up
the sun shines sure as day. we choose to >> look up
shadow and light play in the forest and we choose where we place our gaze. >> up
we see the sky, take lessons from the pain >> up
we shake the dirt, invite fractured pieces to mend >> up,
we learn to breathe, let blossoms emerge from rain >> up
our gaze will soften, allow light to shine >> up
we open to joy, find rivers rushing in >> up
we feel the love, sunshine is no stranger
up, even when the ground quivers, the sky burns with blue blazes
look, hope is invited, inviting you towards the pulse of life, newness,
laughter unbridled.
we choose where our gaze takes us.
breathe.
look. up
Elaine Hill