Dietrich Bonhoeffer defined Easter this way: “To live in the light of the resurrection – that is what Easter means” (Barnhill, 2005, p. 114). Live in the light of the resurrection.

In one of those contemporary movies about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, one scene sticks in my mind. It is when the women who discover the empty tomb early that first Easter encounter there the “two men in dazzling clothes” (Luke 24:4).

But instead of actually meeting two men standing there, all we see over the empty shroud in the tomb is an eye-shielding brilliant light from which the divine voice speaks, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5). Surprise!

We are so fortunate in Canada to celebrate Easter each year during the Springtime in the Northern Hemisphere. Early 20^th century New England writer, Henry Beston, called Spring, the “trumpet call of the return of light” (cited in Mahany, 2023, p. 62). In Spring the days grow longer, we get our first basking in the sunlight’s warmth, and new life starts emerging from the sleepy, cold earth.  We know, at least in Spring, that truly we live in the light. We need the light, to live.

Sometimes, as on that first Easter morning, the light actually changes people. Listen to the testimony of Rosemarie Feeney Harding (cited in Rohr, 2025, March 27) who describes her experience of how the Light impacted her life:

“I can’t say exactly where the Light entered,” she writes, “where it started from. Suddenly, it was just there with me. A white light, bright enough that it should have hurt to look. But it didn’t hurt. In fact, as the Light grew and enveloped everything in the room, I felt the most astonishing sense of protection, of peace. It surrounded me and I was in it, so joyfully…. 

“The Light became a kind of touchstone in my life. It was so much love. Like an infinite compassion. At the same time it was something very precious and intimate. It awed me, really. And when I walked out of the room, everything looked different. Clear. Even later, outside the house, in my classes and at my job, everything looked sharper. It was like a heightened sense of presence. Almost a shine.  

“I do believe that whole experience put me on a path. And the Light stayed with me a long time. It gave me a sense of security and deep internal connectedness to God, I would say …

“As I moved away from my family and struggled for years … I needed the grounding and shelter and strength of that Light. There is something in there, in that profoundly embracing energy, that allows you to come out with a kind of forgiveness, an absence of animosity … Help. Encouragement. A deep, deep encouragement in this life …” (Harding & Harding, 2015, pp. 1-3).

Living in the light. I wonder what it would be like to always live in that light. What would change in your life? What good things you already have and are would come to the surface? What would you see in others?

One icebreaker question I’ve always enjoyed answering is: “If you could be one animal, what would it be and why?”

If I were answering that question today, I think I’d like to be an Arctic Tern. You see, these terns “spend the summer in the Arctic when the sun is available for almost 24 hours. Then they fly south during the Northern Hemisphere winter to join the summer season of the Antarctic regions, where the sun is also visible almost 24 hours a day.

“Scientists believe they follow the sun because the sun illuminates the water allowing them to find fish during their travel. As a result, Arctic Terns are believed to experience more daylight in their lifetime than any other creature. Right now is the time of the Arctic Tern’s return migration to the Arctic” (Coman, 2025, March 27).

Birders at Point Pelee and other bird sanctuaries on the migration routes over Ontario are actively lifting their heads to the heavens these days! And they are excited for what they might see. Surprise!

A large part of why Easter joy surprises us is that it is unexpected. The joy comes as a surprise because of the tough road that preceded Easter joy. Living in the light is so special because this joy grew out from the ashes of loss, of death. What seemed certain and final. It’s the contrast. It’s the surprising, unexpected answer to what was an impossible possibility.

The Christian narrative is essentially a rising-from-the-dead story that plays out in the wake of history’s darkest hours. Therefore, Easter brings a message of hope.

One of the most famous of these stories of emerging from history’s darkest hours is the miracle of the seed birthed in the inferno. It is the story of the seeds of Hiroshima, “when in the aftermath of the atomic fireball in August of 1945, the city staggered through never-before-witnessed devastation.

“As survivors scrounged for unburned rubble to try to patch together homes, word came from a prominent physician that nothing would grow there for seventy years, with all flora and fauna incinerated across a [near 10-kilometre] swath.

“[But] barely a month after the bombing, though, rising from the charred bits [about a kilometre] from the explosion’s radioactive center, red canna lilies and delicate wildflowers began to sprout and bloom amid the wasteland …

“What had happened, in part, was that the bricks of Hiroshima had been formed of clay from the mountains, where wildflowers grew. Walls throughout the city secretly had been harbouring long dormant seeds. And in the cataclysm of the bomb, the explosive power split open the seeds, and the mountain flowers sprouted [under the sun’s light].

“Out of horror, erupted beauty. [Out of darkness, blossomed new life exposed finally to the light.] Ever since, the survivor seeds of Hiroshima have been revered in Japan as ‘the faith that grew out of the ashes’” (Mahany, 2023, p. 39).

This message of new life is for us. Because now that Jesus is alive, every message about Jesus is a message about all of us (Rohr, 2025, April 20). All creatures on earth – including the birds and the seeds and the animals and us – all of creation – shout for joy when out of the tomb of suffering and death we can sprout, we can grow, we can fly.

Spread your wings. Follow the Sun. Live in the light.

For Christ is risen! Alleluia! Christ is risen indeed!

References:

Barnhill, C. (Ed.). (2005). A year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Daily meditations from his letters, writings, and sermons. Harper One.

Coman, S. (2025, March 27). Streams of Living Justice [Blog]. Lutherans Connect. https://streamsoflivingjustice.blogspot.com/2025/03/day-20.html

Harding, R. F. & Harding R. E. (2015). Remnants: A memoir of spirit, activism, and mothering. Duke University Press.

Mahany, B. (2023). The book of nature: The astonishing beauty of God’s first sacred text. Broadleaf Books.

Rohr, R. (2025, April 20). A universal message: Celebrating resurrection. [Website]. Daily Meditations, Center for Action and Contemplation. https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-universal-message/

Rohr, R. (2025, March 27). A light that sustains: Centering, silence, and stillness [Website]. Daily Meditations, Center for Action and Contemplation. https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-light-that-sustains/