Easter 2019 Message from the Corps Officers

17.04.2019

Dear Friends,

The weather forecasters are telling us that this Easter weekend we are going to be blessed by good weather in Birmingham. It is going to be so pleasant that the UK will be warmer than Spain or Greece. That’s what we like to hear! So, put away those winter clothes and instead get out those summer garments. At this time of year, I always feel that putting away the warmer jumpers and replacing them with colourful summer style shirts and short trousers is joyful enough, but imagine the added bonus of putting your hand in the pocket of your three-quarter length summer trousers to find a £10 note in there! I remember that is exactly what happened to my wife, Clare, a few years back. As we were getting into the car, she put her hand in her pocket and in there was a £10 note. Our instant reaction was the same – “How did that get in there?” It would be nice to think that we’ve got special clothes that simply ‘make’ money when left alone for long enough. Alas, that’s the stuff of fairy tales and there is a more simple answer: the note was unintentionally left in the pocket at the end of the previous summer. How it was left there does not matter, it did not detract from the surprise at finding it.

Thinking about it, our reaction to finding the £10 pound note is not as stupid as it first seems. Of course, we knew how it got there. We did not need to ask ourselves. The question was in a sense a natural reaction of surprise at discovering something that was unexpected. That first Easter Day was one of unexpected happenings and added bonuses! It should not have been, but it was. After seeing Jesus crucified and killed three days earlier, the women went to the tomb in which Jesus had been buried only to find it empty. They were not expecting that. Then a dazzling figure appears telling them Jesus was alive – they were not expecting such a sight either. Jesus … alive? Really? And then He appears … risen, living, and standing there talking to them! Wow! How did He get there? The women went to the tomb expecting to embalm a dead man and to their total surprise they came away dancing and rejoicing having witnessed first-hand the living Christ resurrected from the dead. Now that’s what a call a bonus!

Carl Knudsen writes, “The story of Easter is the story of God’s wonderful window of divine surprise”

For the majority of people who walk the pathway of faith it begins with an unexpected spiritual experience of God. For many this is not planned, the experience is a response to God making himself known in a way that is beyond imagination and reason. This Easter time, let the risen Christ surprise us each. May He come to us in ways we are simply not expecting and may we rejoice in knowing for ourselves that He is alive!

Happy Easter to you all. Christ is risen!

Every blessing,

Major Adrian Allman

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