"By His great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,... without having seen Him you love him: though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy."

I still remember, as vividly as if yesterday, sitting in a service in my home church during Easter vacation of my sophomore year.  I had dutifully gotten up on Easter morning and gone to church to please the folks.  Most of the service foiled to impress me.  It was a skeptical time in my life when I had decided that most of this church stuff made little sense.  But when the minister stood and read the scripture, Luke's story of the first Easter, I was astounded.  I caught myself looking around at the congregation. Were they really sitting t…