One of my ongoing efforts, in both my individual spiritual experience as well as in my family’s faith journey, is to make abstract concepts from liturgy and tradition come to life. As it turns out, the latter half of that effort (family faith journey) helps with the former (individual spiritual experience) because being a parent of young children forces me to move from the abstract to the concrete regularly. 

This applies to life outside the faith arena:

“Use your napkin and chew with your mouth closed” is a lot more effective than “be polite.”

“Try asking what she did over the weekend, or what has been making her happy lately,” works better than “be a good friend.” 

“Take a deep breath and notice five things you see around you,” remedies a tearful outburst much more quickly than the words, “calm down!”

And it applies to life inside the faith arena as well:

“God became human so that we can know him and be close to him,” makes sense of incarnation at a child’s level in a way that primary church documents don’t quite.

“We’re not having dessert during lent because making sacrifices helps us remember Jesus’ sacrifice” brings fasting to life. 

Kids want and need practical suggestions and explanations to understand abstract concepts like manners, friendship, and emotional regulation, as well as religious ideas like incarnation and sacrifice.

And do you know what? I think that most adults do too. Let me put it this way: I came closer to grasping quantum theory by reading the board book Quantum Physics for Babies than I did by intensely studying the textbooks of any of the college courses I took. Sometimes, keeping concepts simple and straightforward is a surer path to understanding than providing large quantities of in depth and detailed information. The more practical, the more relevant to everyday life, and the more relatable, the better. 

On that note, with the Easter season in full bloom, let’s try to move beyond the abstract and into the concrete when considering the concept of resurrection. Let’s put resurrection into everyday words and behaviors. 

Resurrection means that suffering isn’t the end of the story. 

It is so easy (so, so, so, so easy) to forget about the past and have no thought of the future when in a moment of suffering. When we are in physical pain, often all that we can think about is that particular pain; when we are carrying emotional burdens, it can be hard to see beyond them. And if this is true for us as adults, it’s definitely true for children. 

This past winter, we took our kids to visit my mother-in-law in Florida, and after a day spent eating ice cream, going to the Magic Kingdom, getting to pick a souvenir from the gift shop, and chatting all day with one of her favorite people – my husband’s mom – one of my children bumped her head on the bunk bed ladder as she was climbing into bed. I know it hurt – it was a loud thwack! – but that didn’t stop me from feeling a bit chagrined when she exclaimed, “Owwwww! This has been the worst day of my life!!!” How quick she was to lose all sight of anything beyond her suffering. 

These moments happen, but the resurrection provides for us specific evidence to the contrary of any experience, thought, or fear that tells us that suffering is the end of the story. No matter how bad things are, the resurrection provides encouragement that there is always something beyond the suffering. 

Resurrection keeps failure in perspective 

No matter what we’ve been told by coaches, teachers, parents, mentors and role models throughout our lives about the necessity and fruitfulness of failure, it can be hard to keep failure in perspective. Failure usually hurts, be it our bodies, minds, hearts or souls. When we fail, it can be helpful to remember that Jesus’s crucifixion looked like a failure to his followers at the time. After a few short years of teaching, healing and preaching, their friend and leader was abruptly halted in his ministry and sentenced to the death of a common criminal.

But then, the resurrection happened. And it shows us:

What looks like failure isn’t always failure. 
Whether the illusion of failure or actual failure, good can come from it. 
Sometimes failure has less to do with our flaws and missteps, and more to do with the world around us. 
Failure makes way for something new. 

Resurrection is forever

It’s easy to think of the resurrection as a one-time event that occurred two thousand years ago. While it’s true that Jesus opened his eyes, took his first post-death breath, and walked out of his tomb at a singular point in history, the reality of the resurrection keeps on existing, and it will for eternity. Jesus didn’t resurrect in order to die again. Love didn’t conquer hate in order to lose again. Light didn’t break through darkness for the world to go dim again. 

What this means for us is that we can keep on having hope, optimism, confidence and joy. In concrete terms, we can delight in the blooming daffodils, even when the news is dark. We can let our seven-year-old ride her bike around the block, even if it’s scary to let her out of our sight. We can plant those apple seeds the five-year-old saved from her snack and tend to them, even when we don’t know if they will grow. We can laugh at the dinner table, even when there are things left unsolved. We can make plans for the future, even when the present feels uncertain.

Let’s remember that suffering isn’t the end of the story. Let’s remember that failure isn’t always as it seems. Let’s remember the resurrection is forever. Let’s live like the resurrection is real…because it is.