no more to die

Jesus lives, and so shall I

I'll be raised from the dust with Christ on high

Jesus lives, no more to die

And when He returns, with Him I'll rise

He is risen!

One thing I've grown to appreciate about holidays is how adamantly time-bound they are. That is, a holiday typically commemorates something that really happened. Independence Day, for example, isn't just a time to "celebrate our freedoms" but to remember a specific act of specific people: flesh-and-blood men standing in a building, picking up a pen, signing a document. Without that history, the day loses much of its meaning. Or think about a wedding anniversary. It's good to remind ourselves that we weren't always together like this-- that God brought us into a union, not to be taken for granted-- that there was an actual day, sweet and joyful, when we two became one.

So with Easter. Though we rejoice in Christ's resurrection year-round, choosing a date to concentrate more intensely on that fact reminds us that yes, it really did happen. It happened within this fabric of time and space. It happened on a morning just like this one. We celebrate, not because we have a vague feeling of happiness, but because Christ the Lord is risen today.