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A grieving Martha meets Jesus on the way. “If you had been there, my brother would not have died.” And Jesus responds with sweetest of words:

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

Like all who read these words, I am old enough to have died many deaths — deaths born of my own sin and of others’ sin against me; deaths caused by a world system that exalts the vain and lifeless; deaths born of a dying creation that longs to be renewed. Little deaths and big deaths are hard. They hurt. They disorient. They tempt to despair. But they are also a precursor of life. Time and time again, I have seen life born of death. Resurrection Sundays invariably follow Good Fridays, though the days between can be dark.

If we believe Him, we never undergo a dying that does not in time usher in a deeper living. And to such a claim we likely say, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” We need reminders, incarnations of where life is to be found. We need Easter holidays to remember and celebrate. We need spiritual friends to share the road. We need a community to live a new life reality. At Ambleside, we strive to be such a school community, for each other and for the children’s sake.

May you and yours have a blessed Easter.