When I was a little kid, the Easter season raised a lot of questions for me. Christmas is easy for a kid to understand. Everything about the Christmas season is joyous: the music, the food, the presents. Chirstmas is celebrating the birth of a newborn baby, for cryin’ out loud (oops, no pun intended there); how can that not be anything but joyous?! Easter, on the other hand, is a bit more complex.
According to the Christian calendar, today is Maundy Thursday in the church I was raised; however, some churches call it Holy Thursday, which would have been a lot easier to grasp. But, Maundy Thursday? That was a contradiction to me; how could it be Monday and Thursday at the same time? It became even more confusing to me when I learned how to spell. Geez, I thought grown-ups were supposed to be good spellers. Of course, by the time I got to college it all started to make sense to me. Of course, Maundy Thursday was the fourth verse in the Mamas and Papas pop song, “Monday, Monday”.
After Maundy Thursday comes Good Friday, which had its own set of questions and contradictions. Of course friday was good; it was the last day of the school week, no more school clothes for two whole days, except for the Sunday clothes for Sunday morning. Sleeping late on Saturday, lots of free time, less structure, yeah, fridays are good. So why was this particular friday called Good Friday, a day marked on all of the calendars? When I got old enough to comprehend how Good Friday fit in the Easter story, and what happened on that day, then I was really confused. Even without knowing what a crucifixion was, just the words “died on the cross” told me this can’t be good. Why wasn’t it called Bad Friday?
Saturday, after Good Friday, came and went without much fanfare around my house. Geez, are we trying to catch our breath after the trauma of last night’s church service? Sunday, of course, was Easter, and I can’t tell you how many questions I had about the Easter Bunny — rabbits, eggs, Jesus? Geez, what hollywood wacko dreamed up all this stuff?
But, I digress; I should talk about the picture since this is a “photographer’s blog”. I was asked to take some pictures for the church directory. I don’t know which one(s) they are going to use, but this is my favorite.
Thought for the Day: The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible. George Burns
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