It was the darkest of days. Hope had breathed its last. Dreams were buried. Even after the sun dared shine again, confusion and misunderstanding made dark their minds.
What now? What do you do when Faith proves to be vapour? When Hope has died? When Love lays lifeless?
You cry.
Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. She wept as she stooped to look inside. And when two angels sat at the head and feet of an empty bench, asking her why she wept, she answered. She did not faint from fear. She did not shout in understanding. She did not run to find a Risen Saviour. In that moment all she knew to look for was what had been.
“They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
My faith is shattered. My hope was empty.
But Love still burns.
She turns away. She sees Jesus standing there, but she does not know Whom she sees.
She does not recognize this new Hope.
Jesus gently asks why she weeps. He asks who she seeks.
And she still does not see. She still asks for the body. She still looks for the shell of what was.
In the stillness of a garden, the Word once again whispers a name.
Whispers her name.
“Mary”
Hearing only her name, she immediately knows the One who calls her. The voice calls her name and light banishes darkness. Fear crumbles before love.
Death has given way to life.
(Taken from John 20:11-16)
I AM the good shepherd.
The sheep hear his voice
and he calls his own sheep by name
the sheep follow him
for they know his voice
I AM the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:3,4, 11,15
A Space for Grace 