Easter Morning: Living as Exiles

I took a walk this Easter morning through the empty streets of our adopted home city of Ulaanbaatar. The streets were not empty because it was Easter. The streets were empty because it was 7:00 on Sunday morning. They look like this every week. Few people here know the significance of the first Sunday after the first full moon after vernal equinox. As I walked this morning and took pictures of the empty streets, I found myself with a glad heart. As the bright sun rises on the city today, so the Son of Life has risen from the dead. Jesus is alive. That makes being here bearable. That really makes living life on our fallen planet bearable. We know that grace will one day reign. Hope is everything.

It is in knowing that we have hope that we can work hard to bring hope to others. Our home is not here. Our future is not here. We live for a city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. In the words of the late Larry Norman, "we are only visiting this planet." This hope makes 'living as an exile' seem not so bad. We seek a better homeland, and call those we meet along the way to join us in the journey. (Hebrews 11:13-16)

Here are a few scenes from my Easter morning Sunrise wanderings through the streets of Ulaanbaatar: