"Hello"

Here we are the day after Easter. We have spent the past few weeks in what I have called our upper rooms; waiting, uncertain and disconnected.

We might find ourselves feeling a sense of anticlimactic disappointment as we find ourselves on the other side of Easter Sunday, still in our upper rooms waiting for our Pentecostal moment.

I read that pollution is down in several places due to the pandemic and its restriction on travel. As I go for my daily walk I see the streets filled with families bicycling or walking around the neighborhood; something I haven't seen since my childhood. I see a longing in the eyes of those I pass on the street as we walk off our uncertainty and isolation.

The longing is connection and relationship. When we say hello as we pass it is different than it was only months before. There's more engagement and appreciation. Instead of a muttered "Hello" as eyes drop to the ground it's a warm "Hello" eyes engaged and connected.

Behind the "Hello" there are so many other words like,  "I see you" "You see me" "We are both going through something together". So much more being said than that one word. There are also other words....questions. "Are you scared?" "Are you worried?" "What has this all meant for you?".  We don't actually say those things, but our eyes tell the story in the brief passing of souls.

"Hello". Christ is risen! In that is hope for the days to come. What is behind your hello today? Does the promise of what Easter brings give you hope for a new day, even when the circumstances around don't seem to have changed? Nothing may have looked different in that upper room that first Easter morning....but there was a big change that took place. A tomb was empty.

Even when we can not see the tomb is empty from our upper rooms the truth still remains. Jesus is risen and we are made clean through His sacrifice. We are loved. We are cherished....and we are not alone.

-Pastor Patti