Rooster

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead….” - 1 Peter 1:3

Our neighborhood has a rooster. We are not supposed to have one, but there is one. And for the past few months now, the rooster has been making his rounds early in the morning. And making…that…noise. He goes from yard to yard announcing…the advent of a new day I guess.

Actually, I went to the website called “The Happy Chicken Coop” and it explained that roosters “have a mean internal circadian rhythm clock of 23.8 hours and would start to crow at the appointed time. This helps to explain why roosters start to crow slightly before sunrise.”  The author went on to write, “Roosters are loud and proud and like to let everyone know they are in the neighborhood!”  Yep.

The other morning I was leaving to come to the church, and the rooster was in the front yard (see the picture), doing its thing. As a started to pull up the driveway, it ran directly in front of my car.  And stopped and looked at me. I tapped on my horn. The rooster didn’t move and then proceeded to bark out its “cock-a-doodle-do” at me.  Then, and only then, did it move on down the road to yell at a neighbor.

Cock-a-doodle-do is apparently roosterese for, “It’s a new morning, get moving!”

OK, I was. Get out of my way!

I contemplated the passage above on the day after Easter. And, in a way, it is like the ultimate rooster demand. God has given his people the definitive wake-up call.  When we consider what we have in and through the resurrection of Jesus, it is as if “he has given us new birth into a living hope….”

Easter, and every morning that follows, is God’s “cock-a-doodle-do.”  Friends, a new day has dawned, full of possibilities, promise, and purpose because of “his great mercy.”  What you do with it, seems to be up to you. But the new morning is here. Because he is risen, we have this living hope that anything is possible, and perhaps even probable through Jesus. We can leave the past behind, and start anew each morning!

We have a living hope…we have new birth…we have great mercy. Because of Easter.  How you and I live into that remains to be seen. 

But we’ve heard the rooster crow. And it’s a new morning, get moving.