00:05So here I am at a small holding in Mid Devon and it's lambing season here. No matter how hard
00:13and
00:13cold and chilly the winter has been it's not hard to feel positive and optimistic when you see new
00:21lambs and you see new signs of life in a place like this. It reminds me of the important message
00:30of Easter actually about new life and I'm reminded of the story of a great saint of the church
00:37brother Lawrence of the resurrection. Lawrence was a young man who was injured in battle at the age
00:43of 18 and spent some time convalescing in bed and out of his window he saw a tree which was
00:50in winter shorn of all its leaves looking as dead as you like but as he lay there he saw
00:58the
00:58transformation of the tree into spring and that began his journey of faith. He realized that all
01:05around him were signs of death turning into life in the created order. He began to understand that
01:13life isn't a series of problems to be solved as if we can solve all the problems of life
01:18but that actually life is perhaps better understood as a series of signs to be read, mysteries to be
01:26engaged with, life to be realized. After all if the Christian message is true that Jesus came to life
01:36after dying on the cross on Easter day then one would expect this God to leave traces and signs
01:42around creation of this kind of transformation. And sure enough that is what we see. We see how darkness
01:50is turned into light every day. We see how eggs become chicks, how acorns appear to die but in doing
02:00so
02:00create great oak trees. All around us we see these signs and we imagine that because we have described them
02:08we have somehow explained them away. But no, these are signs to be read. The Easter story says if you
02:17are in despair, if you are in the darkness, if you are in the shadow of death, then don't give
02:27up hope.
02:27Understand that with our Lord there is the possibility and promise of transfiguration and transformation.
02:35From darkness to light, from despair to hope, from death to life.
02:40So my prayer for you this Easter is that you may know this Easter hope in your own life and
02:47read the signs that are all around us.
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