After Easter

The Monday following Easter will find me on a plane headed toward Atlanta. For a week, I will be spending time at Columbia with friends and colleagues as we celebrate through worship and seminars the life of the late Shirley Guthrie. I’m looking forward to gathering with my peers, listening to lectures (without having to worry about taking notes!), and enjoying the culinary delights of my old hometown. I’m also looking forward to continuing my celebration of Easter.

I am excited that this gathering of my colleagues where in which will we celebrate the life of a beloved professor is following immediately after Easter. I fear that once Easter Day has come and gone, the celebration of the resurrection and the hope we have in it is no longer on the forefront of my mind. I get distracted, move on to the next Sunday, the next season in our church calendar. But this year, I will be spending my first “after Easter” days celebrating the life of Dr. Guthrie. When we celebrate the life of one who has died, we celebrate the promise we have for life everlasting, a promise we have because of what we celebrate this Easter Sunday. I am thankful that this year I will have an immediate reminder that the Good News of Easter is not just to be celebrated on Easter.