“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark... (John 20.1).
It was the earliest part of a new day and a new week—and a new life, though Mary didn’t know this yet. All Mary knew was that there was no sun.
There was no sun yet on the horizon to show where to place each footstep on her way to the tomb. Alone, she received no ray of warmth from a companion who might have shared the anticipated agony of washing and preparing the body of the man who was more beloved and precious than a brother. There was no glimmer to lead towards a future beyond grief and bewilderment, no escape route from the dead end that felt like all, that felt like everything.
While it was still dark.
The Son rose before the sun. While it was still dark the Son rose. Life, hope, possibilities, were birthed in the magnificent, luminous, pure black, fecund emptiness of the tomb.
By the time Mary arrived, this life had already erupted with greater creative and eternal impact than the Big Bang.
While it was still dark.
Like Mary and the other disciples, none of us escapes the deepest grief, the most tormenting bewilderment, the thickest wall that ends with no way ‘round.
And yet, life is birthed while it is still dark, while there is complete, glorious, silent darkness.
This is why I suggest going on this Easter retreat in the dark, preferably beginning at sunset, so we experience—and practice trusting—that life rises while we don’t yet see the light that will show us the way.
Raven Davis, an Indigenous multi-media artist, curator, activist, and community organizer of the Anishinaabe (Ojibway) Nation in Manitoba, writes:
“The dark and the light, they exist side by side. Sometimes overlapping, one explaining the other. The darkened path is as illuminated as the lightened…”
The rest of this year is not going to be easy. Our path is going to feel sunless and uncertain much of the time.
But all the while, dark and light will exist side by side, sometimes overlapping, each illumined by the presence of God.
Life will come—while it is still dark.
Designed to be experienced as your schedule allows over ninety minutes, three hours, or six, please download your free, at-home Easter Retreat below.
Happy Easter.