Easter Devotional ~"Christ the Lord is risen, our Joy that hath no end."

“Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”          

 Revelation 1:18

'Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.  For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.'

Song of Solomon 2:10-12

Now let the heavens be joyful!

Let earth the song begin!

Let the round world keep triumph,

And all that is therein!

Let all things seen and unseen,

Their notes of gladness blend,

For Christ the Lord is risen,

Our Joy that hath no end.

 John of Damascus A.D. 760

     "The time of the singing of birds is come,"--the time when nature calls aloud to us and bids us awaken out of the deadness of personal grief, and rejoice in the new manifestation of His beauty that God is making to the world.  "Behold, I am alive for evermore, and the dead live to Me."  Was not this the secret saying which the new verdure was writing all over the hills, and which the young pattering leaves and singing-birds were repeating in music?  It must be well to have ears to hear and a heart that could respond with a little flutter of returning joy and thankfulness.

 ANNIE KEARY

 (1825-1879)

The Lord of all, Himself through all diffused,

Sustains and is the life of all that lives.

Nature is but a name for an effect,

Whose cause is God…

One spirit, His

Who wore the platted thorns with bleeding brows,

Rules universal nature. Not a flower

But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain,

Of His unrivall'd pencil.  He inspires

Their balmy odours, and imparts their hues,

And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes,

In grains as countless as the seaside sands,

The forms with which He sprinkles all the earth.

Happy who walks with Him! whom what he finds

Of flavour or of scent in fruit or flower,

Or what he views of beautiful or grand

In nature, from the broad majestic oak

To the green blade that twinkles in the sun,

Prompts with remembrance of a present God.

His presence, Who made all so fair, perceived,

Makes all still fairer.  As with Him no scene

Is dreary, so with Him all seasons please.

WILLIAM COWPER

The Task