Dean of Peterborough: ‘God’s creation is coming back to life’

A time for celebrating new life, enjoying gardens and greenery and getting out and about.

But not this year.

Instead our streets are empty, our churches locked, shops and offices closed, our families confined and loved ones often far way, writed Dean of Peterborough, the Very Rev Chris Dalliston.

Some of us may be enjoying some valuable down time but others are working harder than ever to keep us safe and well and risking their own well-being in the process.

For some of us there is grief, for all of us there is anxiety and the future is uncertain.

Perhaps we should cancel Easter?

Except that as we look around we can see all around us that new life is emerging. Trees are coming into leaf, flowers are coming into blossom and birds and animals are caring for young.

God’s creation is coming back to life.

And underpinning all of that is another ancient story. The story of Easter is a story of death and new life. Of Jesus who taught us to love and forgive one another and showed the transforming power of love to overcome every evil, even death itself.

Dying on a cross – rising to new life - that pattern, reflected in the natural world itself, invites us to hope, to trust that all can and will be made new, to support one another now and to remember to go on doing that, not just in the dark times we experience now but in all that lies ahead.

May God (whoever he is for you) give you faith, hope and love and his blessing this Easter and always!