Easter morning (Mark 16:1-8)  4/8/2012

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A few days ago I sat in my house looking out a window and reflecting on the Gospel reading we just heard from Mark’s Gospel account. As I stared out the window I noticed a truck towing three large trees pass by and stop at the center median just a few hundred feet down the street. There was a police car close behind and as they began to spread orange cones around their work site I was reminded of a conversation I had years ago. Shortly after I moved to the Chicago area I asked a friend of mine if she found the landscape of the Midwest to be monotonous. I asked her this question because I found the flat terrain and prairie vegetation to be lacking as compared to the rolling hills and beautiful trees of the Northeast. She dismissed my preferences for the Northeast, telling me that she not only loved the Midwest’s landscapes but she was glad to not have to worry about all those trees hanging over her head. “Give me open spaces and big sky any day!” she told me. I laughed at her suggestion that the beautiful trees that imitated natural covered bridges and flowered arches would fall from the sky. At least, I found her suggestion to be laughable until last October. The late fall snowstorm that unleashed unimaginable destruction and lasted for days (that turned into weeks) made something that always seemed unlikely become incredibly real. Continue reading →