Death and Resurrection

 

Dead plant comes to life

Rain falls and within seconds dried-up moss that’s been virtually dead for decades unfurls in an explosion of green. The microscopic creatures living in the moss come out to feed.

 

Quotes and photos above from Gardenista.com

 

Easter 2020, a Reflection

After my book tour to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania last September (2019), my sister Jean and I visited Bossler Mennonite Cemetery, where my brother Mark is buried. Our feet trod slowly – and with dread –  the distance from the church to the tip top of the cemetery, knowing we would see the sturdy granite tombstone, carved with wheat sheaves, symbolic of his work on farm equipment at my dad’s shop.

Under this monument lie the remains of our dear brother, gone way too soon. His plot is next to my parents, Ray and Ruth Longenecker at the topmost row of the cemetery, bordered by a farmer’s fence. Maybe there is some significance to that specific location—on a hill, and at the top of that hill.

 

A writer in The New Yorker magazine explores the significance of such placement . . .

Mount Lebanon, where my father is buried, is a hilly place—as many cemeteries are. Maybe this is meant to mirror the spiritual topography of life on Earth, or maybe it’s just for the pretty views.

March 8, 2019 The New Yorker

 

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Easter in the Christian calendar occurs this year in the month of April. Some years the date occurs earlier, in March. Here is a link that tells how the date of Easter each year is determined. Easter signals the renewal of life in spring time, and a reminder of the eternal life, the promise of Christ’s resurrection.

***

My brother’s body is interred in a cemetery where my husband and I may be buried one day. But rest assured, according to the hope of the Resurrection, his spirit is with His LORD.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that believeth in me shall never die.

~ John 11:25  King James Version

 

 


 

What pleasant memories of a loved one do you cherish this season?

Do you think hilly cemeteries mirror the spiritual topography of life on earth, as the writer quoted in this post suggests?

What plant do you count on to bloom every year?