I’m hoping that your Holy Week and Easter celebrations were filled with the power of faith and that you arrived at Easter dawn with a sense of wonder and awe at the amazing power of God to do even the most incredible things.   A clergy friend of mine, Rev. Patricia Felletter wrote this poem on the first date of Easter-tide, with only 49 days left before Pentecost Sunday. The poem is shared here with her permission:

Forty Nine Days of Easter
Yesterday we remembered Jesus rose from the dead. It was a very powerful day.
Organs, choirs, chimes, a trumpet. The violin. Classical music,
Old familiar hymns. Potted plants filled the church with the splendor Easter brings.
Communion was served. Easter offerings consecrated. A thoughtful message co-existed with scripture before a packed sanctuary. Later when the clock struck midnight
Easter people slept in their beds with Work clothing laid out for the morning.
Today chocolate is on sale. Easter eggs are put in the fridge out of sight
Easter baskets are emptied and cast aside.
Peeps are at bargain prices in a shopping cart.
Tears shed at the foot of the cross are dried. The disciples are getting on with life.
And as they do, they will offer Jesus’ message and healing
For forty-nine more days of Easter.
We will struggle to keep Easter alive
So that yesterday’s renewal will not get old.
We will return to a sanctuary where infrequent visitors no longer are present.
It will be harder now to maintain our Lenten promises
And live out the challenges our Savior made
Because the euphoria in Easter morning’s gathering will dissipate
Therefore let us tell all the familiar stories and sing all the post-Easter hymns
and be reminded that we are still Easter people, undiminished.
Our lives no longer quite as ordinary as they were throughout the long preparations in Lent.

May you find moments to remember Easter even as we move into Easter-tide.