I don’t want to leave the Easter season without a mention of a nearly annual tradition here in Colorado: White Easter. We rarely see a white Christmas here, but since March and April are our snowiest months, we often see a White Easter! Here’s the view out my window as we were participating in the online Easter service at our church:

When we moved to Colorado in 1984, we discovered why people dye Easter eggs: so the kids can find them in the snow! Easter morning our pastor made another connection: the liturgical color for Easter is white!

Earlier, I said we were “participating” in our church’s Easter service. What does that mean? I’ve discovered in the past few weeks several methods that churches are using to conduct online services:

• Livestream (or recorded) where the service is presented by a few people in the church building and delivered to the members.
• Livestream via Facebook: similar to the first method EXCEPT people can comment on the service as it’s in progress and even do a “like” or a “love” which sends a heart floating across everyone’s screen. It’s not unlike hearing an “Amen!”
• Zoom where participants can actually see one another before during and after the service. That’s what our church is doing. I’ve found that it encouraged us to be dressed for the service(!) since others would see us, and before and after we could actually exchange greetings. No one was in the church building. All the service participants (and there were many) were in their homes. After the service, the coordinator used the Zoom feature of putting everyone into small groups for visiting with one another. During that time we were able to encourage each other and pray together. So for us, this last method was nearly like being at church.

God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ … (Job 37.5, 6, ESV)

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10.24, 25, NIV)