Blooming Easter: Aurora church's flowering wreath marks Jesus' resurrection

A flowering wreath on Easter Sunday at an Aurora church proclaimed Jesus' resurrection.

Pastor Rev. Tammy Scott invited congregants at Wesley United Methodist Church in Aurora to bring fresh flowers to church on Sunday.

As people entered the church, before the service, they were invited to approach the wreath standing in the church lobby and place a flower on it.

The flowering of the wreath represents transition from Good Friday to Easter, from meditation on Jesus' death to joyful celebration of his resurrection.

The flowering wreath was adapted from the flowering cross, found in Christian art as early as the sixth century. It is based on a legend that says that the cross itself burst into bloom at the moment that Jesus died.

It symbolizes, in Christianity, the new life that emerges from Jesus’s death on Good Friday, as well as how God turns darkness to light, sin into salvation. Additionally, the practice may originate in the pious belief that the tears Mary shed at the foot of Jesus’ cross miraculously turned into flowers.