The very first time

Do you remember the first time? Whatever it is that is important to you, whatever it was that changed your life, even if you didn’t realise it at the time. The first time. Do you remember?

Probably you do. Maybe you don’t. But, drawing a blank or memory full, it is now just a pale memory, rewind and press play; a fleeting firing of your synapses making you remember all that time ago. And the longer your remember, the more you remember, the more you’re making it up.

So. That first time. That first time is gone 

and…

You’ll never get it back.

You never can go back

You never can go home

You will never experience that first time again.

It is gone forever.

Lost.

And.

That’s ok.

Actually, it’s more than ok. 

Because today is the first day.

“On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. “

In a mundane sense the Galilean gals went to the tomb at dawn on the week’s first day, a Sunday morning. 

But in a real sense this was the first day. Four and a half billion years after God first separated the land from the water, and saw that it was good. This was the first day of the re-creation, the first day of the week without end, the first day of the resurrection life.

“On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. “

In a very mundane sense, that Sunday trip to the tomb with the spices is why it is an ancient Christian practice to celebrate Easter as the sun rises. You can trace what we’re doing now back , back every year, back,  right back to the women in Jerusalem just about two thousand years ago.  In a very mundane way we’re just copying the first disciples. 

And in a very real way we are here back at the beginning of everything, back at the restart. Every year, every Easter morning. as the first light trickles, then flows, then floods into the new day, we gather and pray and  greet the very first day, the day of resurrection.

I’m often accused of being a glass half empty sort of person. This is not true. Partly because as far as I can tell the glass is not and never has been anywhere even near half full. But more to the point, I am adamant, that I am not a pessimist. Because I do believe that though the glass is near drained now, it won’t be empty forever, and there will come a time when it will be full, spilling over full, never less than full.

A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. Full.

The world right now feels like a dark place. It is a dark place.

The night is darkest before the dawn. 

Christ the Daystar has risen. 

The resurrection life is here.

Nothing stays the same. 

But God is not a thing and He is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Things will only get better.

Christ’s victory is your victory, Jesus’ resurrection is your resurrection.

Another year, another Easter and here we are bathed in the first light of the first day.

Live the resurrection life. It doesn’t get any better than that, it couldn’t get any better. 

Christ’s victory is your victory, Jesus’ resurrection is your resurrection.

Live it now.