+ FOR ALL LIVING SPRINGS PEOPLE – PLEASE READ BELOW +
We Are an Easter People and Alleluia Is Our Song – Fill our Neighborhoods/Sanctuary with Butterflies!
Over the years, Christians have identified ourselves as being an “Easter people”: those whose lives are defined by the victorious power of God’s love, which always brings new life out of death and raises up hope from despair. Over the years, Living Springs has had a tradition of filling our sanctuary with colorful butterflies to celebrate Easter (the butterfly is a symbol of the complete transformation that occurs as we are raised to New Life in Christ). For 2020, the butterfly is an especially powerful symbol, as we think about having to “cocoon” ourselves in our homes for weeks due to the corona-virus. As Christians, we believe in the power of God’s victorious love over all things – and we look forward to that day ahead when we can burst forth from these virus-cocoons to embrace even more fully the new life in Christ we are called to live out each and every day.
Attached to this email, you will find a copy of the butterfly pattern we have used for many years – and this year, we want to use the Butterflies in a special way to bear witness to our identity as an Easter people! So, I am asking of every person/household (no matter what your age) to do the following in the next 2-3 days:
- Print out 1 butterfly for each member of your household. Take a few moments and have each member of your household color & cut out their individual butterfly. If you do not have access to a printer, you can just draw out your own butterfly on any piece of paper.
- Take a selfie/photo of yourself or your family, while holding up your butterflies. Send the photo to our email address, GodAroundUs@livingspringscolumbia.org (or text it to my cell phone, 803-917-2749). For three decades, we have filled our LS worship space on Easter Sunday, and we are at least symbolically going to make sure this happens again in 2020! We are going to print out every one of your pictures and tape it to a pew on Easter Sunday, to show that at LS, we will still be packing God’s worship space with our hearts & praise in a creative way for Easter.
- After you have taken & sent your photo, tape up the butterflies where they will show through the front window of your house – to be a witness of hope for your neighborhood. (I read about a neighborhood in another state where everyone was taping up rainbows in their front windows. For us, in our neighborhoods, the butterflies will be a powerful symbol of the sure & certain hope we have in God’s promise of new life).
- For upcoming special days, if you want, create some additional signs to tape up in your front window, alongside your butterflies:
a. For Palm Sunday, April 5 – color and tape up a sign that says, “Hosanna!”
b. For Maundy Thursday, April 9 – color and tape up a sign that says “Love One Another” or “Love” (a reminder of Jesus great commandment given in the upper room, “Love one another as I have loved you.”)
c. For Good Friday, April 10 – color and tape up a sign with a Cross.
d. For Easter Sunday, April 12 – color and tape up a sign that says, “Alleluia!”
http://lslccdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Easter-Butterfly.pdf