Has it dawned on you?

Think about dawn, that time between darkness and light when we are moving from one to the other. That time when we are unsure, is it dark still, or is it light? In the same way when we don’t quite see something, understand something, or believe something, we might say that “it hadn’t dawned on me yet”.

Life often asks us to spend time in this “dawn place”, when things appear dark or troubling. Although the light may be rising, good things are about to arrive, we just haven’t seen them yet. Take a moment to think of a time in your own life, when things felt dark or troubling, when it hadn’t dawned on you yet.

Today is Easter Sunday. That word, Easter, takes its roots from the word that means “dawn”. We celebrate with Easter Eggs, the centre of which is dark until we break the egg and let the light flood in. We are celebrating the day when the risen son appeared, when the light of the world broke into the darkness and shattered the gloom of the earliest disciples. We are celebrating God raising Jesus from the dead. And like the sun rising every day, Jesus’ rising means we too have a new beginning. The darkness goes, the light wins, and new life begins.

In the reading from John’s Gospel, Mary was in a dark place. It was the beginning of a new week, a new world in fact, but for her, at first, things were looking dim. She did what any of us do when facing a hard time, she reached out to friends she could trust.

Like the good friends that they were, they joined her for a while, not to bring answers, but simple companionship. As they did so they saw and they believed, their doubt turned to faith and light dawned in their darkness.

When we go to the places and the people, where there is suffering, loss or confusion, it is right there that our own eyes will be opened, and our own faith will grow.

Jesus wanted Mary to have her own eye-opening moment and so in her despair and longing he meets her. The truth dawns on her too, she sees and believes, and her tears turn to joy. Her response is wonderful. This is good news not to be kept to herself, she hurries to announce that death has turned to life. The good news of Easter Day is not just personal, it is universal, to be shared with all.

If you are ever unsure how to tell the good news to someone else, then you could do a lot worse than turn to a packet of Jelly Babies. Seriously.

Jelly Babies used to be called Peace Babies. They were introduced at the end of the First World War to celebrate the peace. Babies represented a new beginning, and jelly sweets to show that life could be fun again.

After the Second World Ward production paused, someone bought the factory, and turned Peace Babies into today’s Jelly Babies. The name changed but the original shapes did not. Whilst you may know that each packet contains babies in a variety of colours, what you might have missed is that each colour is a slightly different design.

At Christmas we celebrate the baby Jesus born in a stable. Why was this baby born? Look at the black Jelly Baby and you will see it has a heart on it. The heart represents God’s love for all people. The green baby is crying, showing God’s sadness that we all turned our backs on that love.

But God loved us so much that he came up with a plan to draw people back. The baby that was born in the stable was God coming to earth as a human. Once an adult, Jesus started to share who he was, gathering people and teaching them, and showing through his miracles that what he was saying was true.

Sadly, not everyone appreciated this new teaching, and the B on the red Jelly Baby speaks of the blood that was shed. Jesus died on the cross, his followers fearing that their leader was gone, along with the teaching he had been sharing. But the pink baby, who if you look at really is a baby, reveals the truth that three days later Jesus was raised from the dead. New life had arrived.

By his death God took one for the team, God took the hit so we don’t have to. We all get a second roll of the dice, we too get to be reborn, to go again. The yellow Jelly Baby is wearing a necklace, representing the riches of God’s kingdom. And lastly the orange baby is wearing a bum bag, packed and ready to go, reminding us that we too can join in God’s work of bringing this blessing.

The two experiences of light dawning in the darkness that we read in John’s Gospel, the doubt of the disciples turning to belief and the tears of Mary turning to joy, are typical of the work of Jesus in people’s lives. But how are we to join in this work?

By responding to loneliness by bringing companionship, responding to fear by bringing love, responding to hate by bringing compassion and responding to hurt by bringing forgiveness.

For it is in this way that we show the love of Jesus, shatter the darkness, and allow light and life to flood in.