Off Balance Easter

Once again I was caught off guard by little differences in culture. Easter here is not quite the same as at home. I should have expected that by now.

It's not Easter in England without hot cross buns.

No rousing choruses of 'Up From the Grave' or the song with all the alleluias. No bouquets of lilies in church. None of the women had springy new Easter dresses. In fact, people were hardly dressed up at all. On Palm Sunday, they didn't hand out palm fronds, so I couldn't fold them into crosses to give people. Instead we have Cadbury cream eggs and hot cross buns and gloomy, rainy skies.

All these little things. Individually, I wouldn't say they were significant. But when you pile them on top of each other, they are ( at least to me). It leaves me feeling sort of off balance, likes it's not quite actually Easter.

Of course, the message of Easter is still the same. Sometimes we need all the familiar things stripped away before we remember what a holiday is acually about. It's not about songs or lilies or dresses or chocolate or sunshine. Those may be the things we associate with Easter, that make it feel like a holiday for us, but they're not the point. Jesus is. He died and rose again because He loves us so incredibly much. I hope your Easter was alive with that truth, regardless of weather or food or any of the external signs of the season.