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Here we go again with another “Five Minute Friday” post!  To learn more about “Five Minute Friday” (FMF), check out the linked image here.  Basically, each week there’s a word given for you to write about.  You start writing, no back-tracking, editing, etc.  At the end of 5 minutes, you stop.  Then you post it, and share in the community of words that were birthed during these 24-ish hours.  It’s cool stuff.
So here’s this week’s response to the word: “after”.

I’m not 100% sure what comes after this.  Not this blog post in particular, but this day to day life I’m living.  When I was young, I remember “knowing” exactly what would happen if I died.  Of course, I’d get zipped right outta this body, and sucked into heaven where Jesus would check the reservations list – make sure my name is there – then have someone escort me to my mansion down a golden street or two.

But since then, I’ve done a little readin’ & studying, and it seems there’s something so much better in store for us.  A New Heaven, and a New Earth, brought together like never before.  An existence that is physical, and real, and glorious, yet not cartoonish and ethereal.  I know it hasn’t happened yet, and so that means everyone who has passed away already awaits somewhere with Jesus for that final act of God’s completion….because we hear Jesus say to the theif on the cross next door, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

So how do I talk about all of this with my children?

I suppose it’s not a huge deal at this point.  They’re still struggling with the concept of “tomorrow” being a different thing than “tonight”…and only recently have realized that “tonight” is actually part of “today” still.

For now, I’ll focus on the part that I know.  The one thing I know about what comes after?  We get to be with Jesus.

That might actually be enough, for me. 🙂

Done.

“Happy Easter Tuesday!!” may not be something you hear today.  But I think you should…at least once.

“my biggest problem starts on Easter Monday (the day after Easter). I regard it as absurd and unjustifiable that we should spend forty days keeping Lent, pondering what it means, preaching about self-denial, being at least a little gloomy, and then bringing it all to a peak with Holy Week, which in turn climaxes in Maundy Thursday and Good Friday…and then, after a rather odd Holy Saturday, we have a single day of celebration…

..Easter week itself ought not to be the time when all clergy sigh with relief and go on (vacation). It ought to be an eight-day festival, with champagne served after morning prayer or even before, with lots of alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air?” – NT Wright, “Surprised by Hope”

Well, in our home we’re not cracking open the champagne every morning.  But we do agree – Easter needs to be a bit bigger.  But let’s whisper such a thing to each other, lest the marketing campaigns for what we should be buying catch wind of it.  It happens at Christmas every year…pretty much from Thanksgiving until New Years.  Our goal is not to extend Easter in a commercialized way, so that we can be going around buying our Easter ______.  So what can an “Easter Week” look like?

I’ve posted here before that with our family, we try to continue the celebrating of Easter throughout the week.  Some of this is simply the attitude of remembering that “This is Easter Week!”.   Saying things like “Happy Easter Tuesday!” with a giant smile, and thanking God in our prayers for His resurrection and what it has already done in our lives.

Part of our family tradition is to give each person a “day”.  Given a day, it’s their responsibility/privilege to make sure we do something “different” on that day.  Something special that we would love to do, but wouldn’t normally go about doing.  Something that says this week is festive, and we are still celebrating something even more important than Christmas!!!

Obviously there are spiritual aspects to all of this too.  To practice living as Kingdom Citizens especially this week, being those who are quick to love, quick to forgive, and overly merciful in bringing New Creation moments about.  To search and discover the ways ourselves and our families are depending on the provisions of God and His Spirit.  To make changes that reflect we are Easter people!!  But these are the ways we aim to be living all year anyway, right?