Listening for the alleluia....

I spent a joyful Easter worshipping with two of my favorite little men, my grandsons. I wish I could say their excitement was about God's great gift of resurrection, but the more accurate reality is their energy had more to do with too much Easter candy.
Bright young 1st grader that he is, my 7 year old Connor can read well enough to follow the words of the hymn on the screen. 4 year old Tyler, on the other hand, was just non-stop, sugar-fueled energy. Maybe he had eaten jumping beans for breakfast.
I love the traditional "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today". Luckily for my busy little guy, each line of every verse ends with the same powerful word: Alleluia.
"Christ the Lord is risen today...alleluia.
Earth and heaven in chorus say...alleluia" etc.
So I would lean down to my energy-exuberant grandson and say, "Listen for the alleluia..." And he did. Just as soon as the congregation got to the end of the line, he jumped in enthusiastically with the sweetest alleluias I heard.

As we were singing, I was just trying to engage a busy boy. Afterward, I have been thinking that my words of anticipation are good by-words for life: "Listen for the alleluia." This week, in the stress of appointment-making, I have found myself listening for the alleluias as worship spilled over into real life.
Moving forward, how important to remember that Easter is the one Christian celebration that is not confined to a day -- or even a season. Every single week, we have an Easter celebration on Sunday. Even during the more serious and somber Lenten season, Sundays are not included in the 40 days of Lent. Sundays-- even during Lent-- are mini-Easters. The resurrection is our joyful heritage/faith foundation for all our Christian experience. Resurrection is the powerful gift of God for us to celebrate every Sunday, all year.
The clamor is loud -- around us in the contentious culture and within us in our fears and anxieties. "Listen for the alleluia" is a life-giving way to keep Easter alive in our hearts. Hopefully, we can join in as enthusiastically as my little 4 year old did once he heard the "alleluia" begin.