He is risen!

     It’s that wonderful time again!  It’s Easter time, the wonderful spring time holiday I enjoy the most.  This wonderful season is the time of year when the earth appears to be reborn.  The ground shakes off the cold of the winter months.  The weather turns warm and pleasant.  Plants start sprouting out of the ground and producing green foliage.

     Throughout the history of the world this wonderful season has been celebrated because of the promise of life it brings.  Some cultures throughout history have chosen to celebrate the spring equinox.  Others have celebrated different gods, often depicting a form of death and rebirth.  Christian cultures celebrate the actual suffering, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. 

     One of the things I marvel at is how much this season points to the glorious event of the rising of the Son of God.  After Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and died on the cross at Calvary, He was laid in a tomb for a period of time spanning three days.  In symbolism of this, the plants of the earth (and many animals) spend the winter months lying dormant.  The earth grows cold and seemingly remorseful to me as snow coats the earth and winter frosts rage across the land.  Darkness descends on the earth for longer periods of time at night.  All of these hints at the dark, remorseful state the world would have been in when its hope and salvation lay in the tomb.

     Then come the beautiful spring days full of hope and promise.  The days start drawing out, giving more light.  The sun warms up the atmosphere.  It feels like everything around you is bursting at the seams with life, production, happiness, and joy, just as the world would have been when the Resurrected Lord brought hope and salvation to those who will pass through the veil into immortality.

      I love the spring.  I love this sense of promise.  I love the indications of Christ, my Friend, that present themselves around every corner.  I love seeing all the evidence that promises He is alive.  He is alive!  I love knowing that because He is alive, I will live beyond mortality.  I love the promise of hope that spring so abundantly gives us.  I love that Easter is celebrated to give us an opportunity to praise the Risen Lord and sing of the salvation and glory that comes from Him.

                “He is risen!  He is risen!

      Tell it out with joyful voice. 

      He has burst his three day’s prison;

                Let the whole wide earth rejoice.

      Death is conquered; man is free.

                Christ has won the victory.
                He is risen!  He is risen!
                He hath opened heaven’s gate.
                We are free from sin’s dark prison,
                Risen to a holier state.
                And a brighter Easter beam
                On our longing eyes shall stream.”  (LDS Hymns #199, verses 1 and 3)