this is the year of coinciding holidays in china. the lunar new year fell on valentine's day, and now qingming festival (also known as "tomb sweeping day") happens to fall around easter.
one can't help but consider the contrasts between the two holidays. qingming festival centers around remembering and honoring the dead: visiting the tombs of ancestors, offering libations, kowtowing before stone graves. it's a time to demonstrate filial piety to your ancestry, to tend the graves of the dearly departed while welcoming the green of spring life.
easter also involves remembering a grave, but not in mourning - rather, it involves the jubilant celebration of an empty tomb. it declares victory over the grave and exuberance at the promise of eternal life. the budding life of spring merely symbolizes the new life - the full life - we have in the One who has risen and conquered death.
on easter, i remember what i too often forget - that i have been rescued and redeemed. that i am not my own and yet my life is more abundant than i can ever imagine. i make room for the miraculous. i am awed - childlike again - by glory.
and all that seems sad and wrong with the world pales in comparison to the blinding fact that resounds with easter morn: He is risen!
No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand
- lyrics from "In Christ Alone"
happy easter, friends.
cups of coffee: 2
mood: joyful, joyful
No comments:
Post a Comment