“How the Virus Stole Easter”: The Story Behind a Pastor’s Wife’s Viral Easter Poem

For many who see Easter as a time to celebrate corporately with church family and friends, loved ones and neighbors, Easter 2020 was a time of loss and sadness. But for Kristi Bothur, who has experienced incredible loss of her own, this Easter contained a message and a hope that not even the coronavirus could steal away. She hopes that others, too, will see that when all was said and done, we didn’t need the fancy clothes and the loads of chocolate and the big church services to celebrate Christ’s resurrection.

“Maybe this will be the year that people realize that Easter doesn’t come from a store,” Bothur shared in an interview with ChurchLeaders.com.

The thought prompted Bothur to write a poem—an exercise in creativity that she hasn’t practiced in a while—about how different Easter 2020 was, and yet how similar it has been to every other Easter Christians have celebrated for thousands of years now.

Kristi’s Easter Poem

The poem, titled “How the Virus Stole Easter,” borrows its structure from Dr. Suess’ classic “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” In that Christmas-time tale, the Grinch, a hard-hearted isolated creature who loathes his neighbors, the Whos in Whoville, steals all of the town’s Christmas gifts, decorations, and fancy food while everyone is sleeping on Christmas Eve. This same Grinch is astounded on Christmas morning when, though confused at first, the Whos come out of their homes and celebrate the holiday in much the same way they usually do: By gathering as a community around the town square to sing carols and greet one another with joy and thanksgiving.

In a similar manner, Bothur believed—before Easter Sunday even came—that the holiday would be the same for believers who have placed their hope and their trust in the risen Savior. The day before Palm Sunday, Bothur saw a post on Facebook from a friend of a friend. The person posted about a reporter’s comment following a press briefing by President Trump. After it became clear the United States would not be able to celebrate Easter by opening back up its churches, the reporter said this would be the first time America wouldn’t be able to celebrate Easter. The post went on to explain that the reporter obviously didn’t understand what Easter was all about. This thought led Bothur to write the following lines (to read the poem in its entirety, go here):

April approached and churches were closed.
“There won’t be an Easter,” the world supposed.

“There won’t be church services, and egg hunts are out.
No reason for new dresses when we can’t go about.”

Holy Week started, as bleak as the rest.
The world was focused on masks and on tests.

“Easter can’t happen this year,” they proclaimed.
“Online and at home, it just won’t be the same.”

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the days came and went.
The virus pressed on; it just would not relent.

The world woke Sunday and nothing had changed.
The virus still menaced, the people, estranged.

“Pooh pooh to the saints,” the world was grumbling.
“They’re finding out now that no Easter is coming.

“They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do!
Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,
And then all the saints will all cry boo-hoo.

“That noise,” said the world, “would be something to hear.”
So it paused and the world put a hand to its ear.

And it did hear a sound coming through all the skies.
It started down low, then it started to rise.

But the sound wasn’t depressed.
Why, this sound was triumphant!

The Easter Poem Takes Flight

Bothur and her husband serve South Beltline Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina, which mostly consists of elderly people who may or may not have access to the internet. The couple worried about their congregation during the shelter-in-place orders that everyone is currently trying to observe. Bothur’s husband, who is a bivocational pastor, asked church members to reach out to one another and make sure they had what they needed to shelter in place.

On Palm Sunday, their small church didn’t yet have the capacity to stream a service to their congregation (they’ve since gained that capacity). So the Bothurs told the group to watch a televised service provided by another church in Columbia. In addition to worshipping at home with her family that day, though, Bothur did something else. She started writing the poem that was taking shape in her mind. She says the first few lines drew inspiration from Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Bothur then shared the poem with her family, who encouraged her to put it on Facebook.

That’s when someone from Awakening America Alliance saw it being circulated on social media and decided to get involved. Kay Horner says the poem “spoke into what the Awakening America Alliance is about.” The organization moved to put the poem in a video as quickly as they could. Horner believes it’s a timely message that “helps to encourage pastors who need extra care during this time.”

Indeed, Bothur says the poem was written to believers specifically. “Easter is more than what the world says that it is,” she explains. “My prayer is that it will spark other believers to realize they can be part of a revival. Revival starts with the church.”

Additionally, Bothur articulates that the world is not the enemy. Rather, much like the Grinch and the reporter who simply didn’t understand the purpose behind these Christian holidays, the world is watching believers right now and observing how we respond to this crisis. Bothur points out that at the end of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” the Grinch is essentially converted and joins the Whos in their celebration. May we see a similar outcome in this time as believers show themselves to be calm in the face of crisis, known for our love, and overwhelmed with praise for the salvation we have in Christ.

Bothur Empathizes With Those Who Feel Loss

Bothur says she doesn’t think “any of us are going to know if [the virus] is a judgment,” as some Christians have vocalized. The more important observation we should be making, Bothur implies, is that “God can use it to show people that we can trust him even when we lose all of the trappings around us.”

The pastor’s wife has gone through intense suffering of her own and hesitates to call anything a judgment that is costing people so much. She shares about a friend who is currently serving in India and who fears if the lockdown in that country goes on much longer, people will likely starve to death in their homes. Bothur likens the effect of calling the virus a judgment to trying to explain away the pain a couple experiences when they lose a baby during pregnancy, an experience Bothur has endured five times. Giving a reason for a profoundly painful experience, Bothur explains, can “minimize the suffering people are going through.”

Bothur and her husband have lost five children over the course of five years. It was an excruciating experience that Bothur writes about on her blog. It was this experience that prompted Bothur to start a ministry at her church in Columbia. Naomi’s Circle ministers to parents who have been through a pregnancy loss. The group has an outreach ministry to a local hospital and does things like send care baskets to parents who have lost a baby. Bothur says she can’t imagine having to go through trauma like that in a time of social distancing and sympathizes with those who can’t properly grieve their losses during this time.

“I don’t want to minimize in any way,” Bothur reiterates. “Sometimes a word of hope will fall on deaf ears if we haven’t been seen as a vessel of comfort,” she explains, alluding to the church’s sometimes harsh responses in times of trauma like the one in which we currently find ourselves.

Bothur is encouraged at the response her poem has received so far. Through her blog, she’s received comments from churches all over the world who wanted to use the poem in their Easter services. The diversity of churches reaching out to her–Brethren churches, Southern Baptist Churches, United Methodist Churches, Catholic, and Anglican churches–has surprised yet delighted her. “I know we don’t always agree on all of the intricacies,” Bothur says, but she believes the poem has found a way to speak for believers everywhere who “want to stay focused on Jesus being the Lord.”