Episode #17: The Weekly Mercies of Pam Ellis

 

Christthe Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!

I stood looking at the stage of our church, decked out forEaster and gave a happy sigh. My family sat around me, I looked pretty good inmy new easter outfit, and hope just exuded from the day. After all, it was hardnot to be hopeful on the day Jesus conquered sin and death. I sang with myheart.

Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia!

Fought the fight, the battle won,Alleluia!

Death in vain forbids him rise,Alleluia!

Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!

 

I wanted to shout for joy, real joy.  Easter had always been a favorite of mine, butthe true hope Jesus offered by His work was so amazing and I could feel thathope flowing through me.

Livesagain our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where's thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia

There was the normal shuffle as someone prayed. I confess Ihave a hard time closing my eyes during the prayer. I find it very interestingto watch as the worship team steps off, the sound team scurrie to make adjustmentsand the pastor gets into place.

Pastor Dave smiled at us. “He is Risen.”

“He is Risen indeed!” I said, along with so many others.

“Easter is always such a special day. But often we celebratethe wrong thing.”

Inwardly, I cringed and was ready to tune out. We weren’texactly an Easter Bunny church. My family had gone to maybe three Easter Egghunts in my childhood. I felt my excitement for the sermon slipping.

“We often celebrate Jesus coming to make bad people good,”Pastor Dave said. “But that isn’t what He came to do. He came to make deadpeople live again.”

I let out a long breath. Now, there was a message I could getbehind and needed.

And as the pastor continued. I realized I needed it morethan I thought. In my quest to restore hope and joy, I had lost sight of the fact that I needed new life and only Jesus could give that.

 

I grabbed a cup of lavender vanilla tea at work and startedto take down the Easter decorations in the store. In an hour, when the storeopened. I wanted to be well on my way to having our new seasonal display up. Iloved all the books and items Lacie had picked out for our spring display. Iremoved all the Easter books and put them on the cart to be returned to the back room.I wove the beautiful spring garlands around the shelves and moved the booksthat were staying into the correct places.

Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good, but to bringdead people to life.

The sermon would be with me for a while. It made me think ofCarol. I wondered how she was doing. I should message her and tell her how hernew year’s post had impacted me. Oh! I needed to decide what I would dothis week from my list.

I stepped back from the display and smiled at how cheerfulthe flowers looked on the display case. That was what I would do! I would getflowers and arrange them.

 

I watched a couple of videos and decided I just wanted tohave fun arranging the flowers I bought. I like the idea of lookingprofessional, but it was more effort than I wanted to go into. I arranged the greenery,baby’s breath, and pink carnations out in front of me and put my earbuds in. Iwas listening through an old favorite. Pollyanna. I adored the book. Ididn’t understand how Pollyanna had ever become a cultural way of sayingshallow optimism because that wasn’t what the book offered.

It had been far too long since I had read this story. Ismiled as I remembered my mother reading this book aloud to us one summer. Imissed our homeschooling days. Actually, I just missed our family being happytogether. What had happened to change things?

Jesus came to make dead people live again.

I brushed a tear from my nose and then another. If that iswhat Jesus had come to do, why wasn’t he doing it for my parents’ marriage? Whydid my parents still barely talk to each other after the months of counseling?Why did I still feel like there was a part of my heart that was dead because ofall that had happened with Jessie?

“Why aren’t You bringing life?” I asked, pushing a stem of greeneryinto the vase.

I retrieved my Bible and went over some of the sections Ihad read recently. How many times had God been working and people not recognized it at the time? Abraham waiting for Isaac. Joseph spent years in prison. Godtook the people on a long route to the promised land. God had a plan, but itwasn’t easy to understand. Many people never did.

I took a deep breath and felt myself choking on my tears.Knowing God had a plan and living it out were two different things.

“Please help me to trust Your plan.” I prayed. I returned toarranging my flowers and listening as Pollyanna pulled a whole town intoplaying the glad game. As soon as all four vases were filled, I pulled out my merciesnotebook.

The knowledge thatJesus can bring life out of dead things

Knowing that God has aplan

God’s mercy in knowingthat my heart and brain may falter and sometimes doubt, but He is faithful

For spring flowers

I love the book Pollyanna, which you can read for free HERE.