As I was sitting on my deck this morning watching the sunrise; my private Easter sunrise service, I was struck my how normal the day seemed.  I imagined the emotion the followers of Jesus must have felt that morning… numb, afraid, exhaustion, indecision, confusion, perhpas some anger. It was two days since Jesus was killed. . . two long days. Now the women were leaving to perform the very normal process of managing the body. Filled with sadness, numb and uncertainly, imagine just how their ordinary day turned to extraordinary. Imagine the engery that surged in thier exhausted bodies. Through swollen tear streaked eyes, thier ordinary day changes and their adrenaline surges.

Funny how we place so much stock in routine. How we take for granted moments as ordinary. How shocked and undone we are when the unexpected happens, good or bad. What stuck me the Easter morning is Jesus knew. He knew their reactions. He knew their pain, confusion and fear. He also knew what they did not yet understand.

Today everything changes.

That Easter morning thousands of years ago, my life changed just like theirs. Today, I know that the power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to me. Today I know the victory that was acheived that first Easter. Today I am free from the power of sin and death because that first Easter, Jesus rose from the dead. That day they were free as well. They, so close to the emotional strain of the events that proceeded that first Easter, were whirled away in exhuberance and disbelief. Today, we struggle to understand the intensity of the events. We fight to keep the world’s ideas at bay, bunnies, chocolate and the like. Thousands of years later, the day marks an extraordinary event. It reveals the power of our risen savior. It demonstrates the depths of his love. It provides the roadmap of faith for all who will follow. He is risen and the world will never be the same. His followers were never the same. I will never be the same. What I do not know about my ordinary days, Jesus knows. I can trust him fully because of Easter.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!