To See the Human Soul Take Wing

In The Prisoner of Chillon, Lord Byron said in the awesome words of a classic

couplet:

Oh, God! it is a fearful thing

To see the human soul take wing.¹

Fearful, yes–but just so surely as our loved ones leave this life, just so surely we may

have the assurance of everlasting life–except for which our observance of Easter would

be more or less meaningless. There is only one issue after all at Easter: that the Son of

God came forth from the tomb and redeemed us from death–that the scriptures testify

truly–that He did rise from death to life and that His Disciples walked and talked with

Him and saw what they said they saw. To those who have lost loved ones, and to those

who face death (which all of us do), let this day mean what it was meant to mean, that

God who gave us life did send His Son to redeem us from death–for the little life that

here we live would lose much of its meaning except for the assurance of eternal

continuance. So wonderful a work is man, so wonderful the spirit and the mind of man,

so loved are our loved ones, so marvelous the universe, so orderly is all creation, that it

all points to eternal plan and purpose. And He who made us in His own image will bring

us from death to a literal everlasting life–as surely as we have seen seed come into full

flower; as surely as we have seen life come by birth. And with all the evidence there is,

and with reason itself and the whispering of the spirit and the certainty of an inborn

assurance–we can only commit our course to the certainty of everlasting life. Thus

Easter brings its sweet assurance that the loved ones we have lost live, and that a loving

Father has provided that we may see and know and live again with those we love, always

and forever.