Resurrection has no Off-Season

I asked Google for some help.  I was thinking to include a pic of the famous Orthodox Christian icon of Jesus breaking open the gates of Hell with Adam and Eve in his ascending grasp.  So I typed, "Easter Icon."  

Oh dear sweet Google, I know you meant well but your algorithms are showing.  I had to scroll to the next page to find a depiction of Jesus.  It was of him wearing the Good Friday "crown of thorns."

No wonder so much of our culture treats Easter as a "one-off" holiday that only deserves hype and no follow up.

I didn't always understand how distinctive our practices of seasonal observance were.  My early life of faith in the Baptist world of the South in the 60's had little if any seasonality to it.  

The "twelve days of Christmas" were for last minute shopping.   Lent was a strange dark space between Mardi Gras and Easter.  That was it!  Christmas was a DAY.  Easter a DAY.  Advent was not on anybody's radar.  

Every sport has a season.  Some sports have their own holidays.  Schools use seasons for all kinds of scheduling.  Legislative sessions are like seasons. (Sine die!)

We should be better at this.  We could at least understand the value of practicing the principles of Easter for a season.  Especially those that hope to inform our year round attentions to Sunday worship, outreach, individual spiritual formation and fitness.

So, back to the picture I was really looking for.  Google did a fine job when instead I asked for "resurrection icon."   Most of what was indexed had Jesus breaking open the doors of Hell and lifting Adam and Eve out of their tombs.  

The particular "practice of resurrection" this helps me to identify is of my own being rescued by love and spiritually waking up and adjusting my eyes to the light that I have not seen in my one-off appreciations of what God is always doing.  

Perhaps for us "seasoned Christians," this Easter of resurrection might better be understood as a "spring-training" or "scrimmage."  Where we train and practice with Jesus holding our hands for those tomb opening or at least eye opening habits of faith we'll need for the rest of the year.