Easter in the Hospital

Easter morning in the hospital lacks a little of the pizazz and excitement of an Easter morning at home with a houseful of kids.   Instead of Easter baskets and giggling children, it is quiet.  Doctors and nurses come shuffling in and out just like it's any other day.  They're happy that Spencer's fever is gone, but worried that the blood cultures showed a bacterial infection.   I just heard over the loudspeaker that there will be a Roman Catholic Easter Mass in the hospital chapel at 10:00.  I note with disappointment that it's already past 10:00.  I've never been to Easter services for another religion before and it sounds interesting. 

The priests will be here soon to administer the sacrament and to give us a recap on the talks and lessons from church today.  In the meantime I'm trying to get into the Easter mode by listening to Easter music on youtube and by reading the account of Christ's death and resurrection in the New Testament.  I read in Matthew 28 when the angel told his mother, Mary,  "He is not here: for he is risen."   I've read those words numerous times before, but today they mean more to me than they would have a few months ago.  Although my firstborn son's trials are nothing compared with the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ's, I feel that I now understand a little bit of the sorrow that Mary must have felt watching her son suffer.  And how great her joy must have been when she realized that He lived again.    

Later I read the account of the resurrected Christ's visit to America found in the Book of Mormon.  It's a story that most of the world does not know, but it makes sense to me that Christ would not just visit the people of Jerusalem, but would spread the good news of His gospel to His "other sheep" throughout the world.  Again my heart is touched in a more meaningful way when I read of how He "...wept and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them."   I weep when I think of how those Nephite mothers must have felt as they watched Jesus bless each one of their children individually.  Although I've always understood  on an academic level that Christ's love for us is both all-encompassing and very personal, lately that love has felt even more real.   The love that is sustaining us right now. 

It is the evening now and the rest of the family will be here soon.  There will be noise, chocolate, and giggling aplenty.  We will eat Easter dinner together--the first Easter dinner in my adult life that I will not have prepared even one small part of.   I look forward to the kids recounting to me the adventures of the morning and {hopefully} sharing some of the spoils from their Easter baskets.   Eventually we will discuss the meaning of Easter and try to share with them the great love that Christ has for each of them.  Although I'm sure they will impatiently wiggle and wonder when we'll be done talking, it is my hope that they feel at least a glimpse of the miracle and reality of the Atonement.

While this Easter has certainly been different than any other Easter I have experienced, the meaning of Easter hits home more than ever.  It is through Christ's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, His crucifixion, and His resurrection which we celebrate this very day that He has saved us from physical death and spiritual hell.  It is through Christ that Spencer will overcome his pains and sorrows he is now experiencing and it is through Christ that we can all be healed of the wounds we bear and have a hope for happiness beyond our ability to comprehend.  So today, I am thankful for the perspective that it gives me to celebrate Christ's victory over physical and spiritual death.  Because Christ succeeded in providing the atonement, however our journey ends, I know that Spencer, and all of us, will be saved through His marvelous love and grace.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."