As we wake to the Resurrection dawn of Easter, Mark Pattie (Lino Lakes, MN) brings our devotional near to its conclusion.
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. (John 20:1)
He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Only Mary didn’t know it. It was still so early, so dark. There was so much she couldn’t see, didn’t know, couldn’t understand. The open tomb was no glorious sign of victory to her. We sing songs of joy about the stone that had been rolled away, but to her it only served as yet another example of a world gone completely out of control.
She didn’t know God was up to something good, something great. She couldn’t imagine in her grief and confusion that God was accomplishing something far greater than she had ever dreamed. The long night of death’s dark rule was broken. A new Day was dawning. As Jesus had promised, the kingdom of God was coming near. God’s kingdom had definitively broken into our world.
This is the Good News we are called to believe in, to stake our lives on. Our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Even the worst things in life — those that seem to be the proverbial last nail in the coffin — are used by God for good. We live and love and serve looking to the future with confident, expectant hope.
Alleluia! He is risen! He is risen, indeed!
God of the Resurrection, we praise you!
Open our eyes to the new Day that is dawning and enable us
to live and love and serve with confident, expectant hope.
Amen.
The Pietist Schoolman 