Good news for a Good Friday

I don't do this very often because this blog is about knitting and quilting and sewing and Leisure Arts and dogs and movies and books and television and random thoughts that cross my mind while I am stuck in rolling bumper-to-bumper traffic on the interstate. 
But...
It is Good Friday. And Sunday is Easter. And as someone who has every reason to look forward to heaven, I believe that we have reason to celebrate today (and yesterday and tomorrow for that matter, but it's all right there close to the surface this weekend). Monday we return to regularly scheduled programming.


But for today:
Mark 16:1-7

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?"

 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

 "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' "

 We celebrate: "just as he told you".
Nothing was accidental or unexpected or out of control about Jesus' birth, life, death, or resurrection. It was all a  part of the plan. And he did exactly as he said he would. And so those promises about my own salvation and what heaven will be like...I believe them because the proof is all right here at Easter.


And finally, someone who said it better than I can (either St. Augustine or Pope John Paul II, various attributions):

Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.