From The Editor

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THE days are lengthening in our approach to Easter and the nights are becoming shorter. For those of us living in Scotland we remain hopeful of sunshine, rising temperatures and a little warmth after the coldness and darkness of winter. With the approach of Easter, the darkness of Good Friday, the hopelessness of Easter Saturday and the joy of new life on Easter Day is not just an annual event and time for reflection and hopefulness in the Christian calendar. It can also be interpreted as a metaphor for our journey in life.

Many years ago, a wise person said to me: ‘You have to have bad times in life to appreciate the good times.’ Those words have stuck with me and as time has passed, they have become more deeply meaningful. The ‘bad times’ are the days of darkness when life is a struggle, when things do not always happen as imagined and disappointment prevails through a period of night and turbulence, when the world feels scary, isolating and threatening. The dawn of day may not end the darkness. In January this year (depending on where you live) it felt as if many of our days were not light, but rather shrouded in dull, grey low cloud and a sense of prolonged darkness, giving a sense of little respite. However with the changing of the seasons, there is the promise of longer and brighter days. Easter can often be a turning point in the changing of the seasons: an April Easter in Scotland can mean sunshine and blue skies but also offer the threat of showers! But the change of the season elsewhere can mean the opposite is true: in Australia and New Zealand, Easter marks the beginning of autumn.

Wherever you live, this church season is a time of contrast: it is a pattern of brightness and shade – the hopefulness of Palm Sunday and Jesus’ return to Jerusalem, overtaken by the events which lead to the darkest of days and his painful death on the cross. Despite daylight, there is the darkness of grief and the uncertainty for the future on the Saturday following Good Friday and then the inexplicable miracle of the resurrection which brings the joy and hope for the world on Easter Day. The light and darkness of Easter serve as a reminder of the need for contrast to fully embrace and appreciate the gift of life in all its fullness.

“The light and darkness of Easter serve as a reminder of the need for contrast to fully embrace and appreciate the gift of life in all its fullness.

Lynne McNeil Editor

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This article appears in the April 2020 Issue of Life and Work

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