The Message of Easter

When I started this piece, it had a different name.  It was called "Reaching for Hope" and it didn't look like it looks now.  The crushing Despair was there.  The light and fluffy Hope was there just out of reach. But that was it.  Just crushing Despair and Hope just out of reach.   When I started this piece, that's how I felt.  All I could feel was the crushing weight of Despair - despair from not getting answers in the hospital, despair from looking to the future and not being able to see anything except life with seizures.  I knew Hope was out there, but I couldn't find a way to reach it.
As I painted I realized I had to paint a bridge between Despair and Hope.  I thought of painting a rope.  I thought of a ladder.  I thought of a staircase. I thought of lots of things.  But then...I realized the only bridge between Despair and Hope was the cross.  The Cross meets us in our Despair and brings us to Hope.  We can't reach Hope on our own.  The only bridge between Despair and Hope is the cross. And that's what Easter is all about.  It's about Jesus being the bridge for us between Despair and Hope.  About giving us a way to get to Hope.  Here's the piece:

And that is the message of Easter, of the Cross as our bridge between Despair and Hope.