Hm.  I wrote two really rousing essays for the Yahoo! Contributors Network but the system has been gummed up.  I feel like the general idea probably should be talked about, in plain words if my other ones are not available.

I don’t “celebrate” halloween.  I tell my kids it is the celebration of death without hope, death without God who saves us.  If I did “celebrate”  this idea it would be now–in the quiet, intensely dark time between Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

It scares me to know how utterly flattened the disciples must have been.  What was the point?  What had happened?  Why?  The meticulous record of Jesus’ instructions tells us He warned them, prepared them, strengthened them.  He gave them a map.  Still the shadow of His death would have been like waiting at the bedside of a drowning victim.  We pray relentlessly for life and fear the worst.

What would have happened to us all if He had not died for us?

What would have happened to us all if He had not risen from the dead?

Plain words, simple words, but in them is every vigil in history, every gnawing doubt.

Sunday.  Rise. Again.