Over the course of this past Lent, I found I was using the word “reframe” often. In the midst of helping someone through a struggle I wondered where this word, “reframe” came from. I’m still not sure, but I did know I was sorting through various aspects of the situation. Reframing became a way of determining perspective, and a way forward.

What is a frame? I would say a frame contains a picture. It sets boundaries. A beginning, and an end. It preserves. It protects what is fragile. The way something is framed can also enhance or detract its appearance. We frame things to remember and memorialize time and places, significant moments.

We could also ask that now that we have passed through Lent and now well into Eastertide, how might we reframe ourselves? We are not the same are we? We are still in this beautiful, long season to consider our new way forward.

Thinking of the earliest followers of Christ after the Resurrection, we can try to understand how their lives were reframed. Imagine how disorienting and challenging the words and actions of Jesus were. All that had gone before was reframed in new, and life-giving meaning. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.( 2 Cor. 5:17)

This Eastertide we can grow by reframing those things in our lives that may have seemed a great loss. Resurrection Day is our proof. No need to go back to old ways of seeing things. Perhaps when you go to worship, you might center on the Paschal Candle as I try to do. The light it gives cannot be contained in a frame; it lights the way forward, leaving the past framed on our life’s gallery walls. A place we can visit and remember but do not wish to stay, because we are changed, for the good! Happy Eastertide to you!

-Bruce LaCrosse

P.S I share a sketch I have done on this theme, and a hymn by the Taize Community.