Sometimes it snows on Easter. It is not all that unusual. But when it does, the snow contradicts our ideal picture of a bright and warm spring Easter Sunday, filled with signs of new life. Our culture has filled Easter with symbols of spring flowers, bunnies, decorated eggs, spring fashions, and children searching for chocolate candies on a bright and sunny morning. Even the Easter brunch has the eggs sunny side up. So the occasional snowflake is not greeted with glee.

I am writing this on a day when another six inches or so of snow is expected to fall upon us. This does seem to be a likely year for a snowstorm on Easter! Rather than blooming flowers and greening earth, we are expecting yet another layer of white snow to blanket our neighborhood.

The Scripture does not connect images of spring and new life with the resurrection of Jesus. That probably emerges in the church with the evangelization of Europe hundreds of years later. Then the renewal of life found in spring was used as an object lesson to illustrate faith in the Risen Lord. But the New Testament seems not so interested in spring. It connects resurrection with mystery, with hope that is hidden until the final day, and with a reality that disrupts the normal seasons of life.

Easter snow can point us to a reality that the New Testament finds in Christ. Paul writes in Colossians 3:3, "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in Glory."

Just as a blanket of snow hides the landscape, so because Christ has died and is risen, our lives are hidden in him, awaiting a great day when we will be with him in glory. In this hope we are encouraged to live in a new way, with new purpose, confident in the victory of God.