‘I hope I get the Mini-Eggs one this year.’ ‘I hope I get the Crunchie.’ On my cabinet, an array of Easter eggs, milk, plain, dairy-free, nut-free – a family tradition – anticipates Easter. Family and visitors love to choose, younger members hoping against hope that no one gets to their favourite one first. It’s fun, a celebration, a little indulgence after the Lenten fast. Eggs, a symbol of new life, hope and resurrection across Christian traditions worldwide.
A friend and I recently had a conversation about hope. Is it a pick and mix of things we long for, like the Easter eggs? Is it a yearning for something in the future, or for something to change in the present? Is there hope for the Holy Land? Is there hope for reversal of global warming? It can be these of course, but there could be disappointment ahead if our hopes don’t materialise. I wonder how often we use the word hope, or feel we’re losing hope, when there seems no hope. Christians speak of hope, surely there is a deeper, more lasting meaning.
Archbishop Rowan Williams is quoted in the Church of England’s ‘Everyday Faith’ as, ‘once describing hope as not merely confidence in the future, but truth in a continuous reality – one where past, present and future are grounded in God’s truth.’
How can we be sure?
In his poem ‘The Darkling Thrush’, Thomas Hardy paints a bleak picture of an inhospitable, frozen winter landscape when suddenly, ‘at once a voice arose among the bleak twigs overhead in full hearted evensong of joy illimited, an aged thrush, frail gaunt and small…had chosen to fling his soul upon the growing gloom’. Joy in the coldest and darkest of nights – is this hope? Is there always the song of a bird?
Creation itself speaks. The cycle of life, winter emerging into spring, the signs all around in tenderly emerging colours, bleating of newborn lambs, changing light and warmth of the sun: signs of hope.
And today, this Easter day, from the darkness and horror of Good Friday, from the tomb to the garden, God in Jesus, the continuous reality where past, present and future are grounded. Here is love beyond comprehension, the hope we share in the bread and wine.
Happy Easter! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!
Oh, and I hope you get your favourite egg!
Mel Adams
