This “low church” Presbyterian did not prepare for a season of “Eastertide.” But the afflictions of four friends remind me that I do not just confess that “I believe I am going to heaven when I die.”

Now is a night time of weeping. But joy comes in the morning, the coming great Day of the Lord! As one African-American spiritual expresses, there is a coming “Great Gittin' up Mornin!”

Yes, I do believe “I am going to heaven when I die.” But, as the Nicene Creed confesses the Christian’s faith, “I look for the resurrection of the dead — and the life of the world to come.”

At our neighborhood church, the Easter sermon included this text: “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:19). We who are septuagenarians are daily reminded about our mortality. But my suffering friends are younger, so gifted, effective, and fruitful in serving Christ. Why must these young leaders now suffer?

Three of my friends battle severe forms of cancer. Another friend is struggling with declining disability. Two friends are self-employed, so don’t have my health safety net from Medicare. Yes, resurrection hope is personal. But it’s more than hoped-for relief from personal, temporal sufferings.

Hope in Christ is comprehensive and cosmic. I not only look for a resurrected body, free from sin, sickness, and death. I also look for the new creation in Christ. One coming Great Day, "the fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable … behold, a king will reign in righteousness." (Isaiah 32:1,5)

My ultimate hope is for more than ever-lasting spiritual life in heaven. There will be a cosmic restoration of all things when King Jesus “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

How apt that, on the first Lord's day after Easter, our congregation sang this traditional American, Shaker folk hymn:

How Can I Keep from Singing?
My life flows on in endless song;
Above earth’s lamentation,
I hear the sweet, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul –
How can I keep from singing?
What though my joys and comforts die?
The Lord my Savior liveth.
Although the darkness round me close,
Songs in the night he giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since Christ is Lord of heaven & earth,
How can I keep from singing?

Hope in Jesus is not only for Easter Sunday, but for everyday. So, in this season of now-and-not yet, let us embrace this tearful, yet joyful and ultimately hopeful season of Eastertide. A season of expectant longing for that great Day when all things are made new.

Come, Lord Jesus!