This year, my desire for planting things seems to be the strongest it’s ever been. In the past, my idea of planting was to put some seeds in the ground, sometimes, even after the suggested time, or, as an impulse thought, to buy some tomato sucklings and plant them.
After seeing my Mother’s Day gift from my mom last year come back to life from what I thought was sure death, a new interest awakened in me. I started asking God a specific question and looking to see how He would respond.
I started being intentional about pulling out old plants/sticks that were definitely dead. I started observing other empty plant pots that I was sure had died last fall start sprouting green – and not just weed, showing that they were not dead. I started watering when the rain seemed to not have come in a few days.
While my experience is so different than the magnitude of what Easter represents, I can certainly relate in a new way.
This particular weekend represents what many Christians now see that there is good news on the other side. But, for those who watched the brutal crucifixion of Jesus, and His subsequent burial, there is no way He could be alive after that. They watched Him take His last breath and proclaimed ‘it is finished’.
But!!!!
Imagine the women who went to the tomb early Sunday with the intent to take care of the body to find an empty tomb, and an angel declaring that He is not there!
Can you picture for a moment the confusion they must have felt? The utter despair? Then, the joy as realization hit?
There is good news on the other side.
He is risen! And, the tomb is empty!
Friends, would you join me and ask God to give you wisdom and vision to know what is dead and what is not?
We don’t need to hold on to things that are dead. But, we can be reminded that Jesus has promised us life eternal, and we can keep looking to Him, who is the author and finisher of our faith.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that you willingly took that walk to the cross that we did not have to. Thank you for dying for our sins so that we would ultimately be redeemed. Thank you for showing us that there is good news on the other side of our darkest days.
