Saturday, April 11, 2009

Saturday, April 11, 2009 - , 6 comments

The Tomb Was Empty

Easter will always be an extraordinary day for me. In the Christian calendar, it is the most Holy day of the year. It is a celebration of the risen Christ. I had been well aware of this for a long time, but four years ago, it gained an even greater significance for me. What was once ritual became real.

I was at a crossroads in my life. My father had passed about five months previously. I was in a job that I hated, and it was getting worse by the day. I was unmarried with no prospects. I had no children. I felt trapped, oppressed by the thought of, “Is this all there is?”

On Easter morning, I woke up with a lightness of heart that I had not felt in quite some time. I don’t know why, but I arose with the phrase, “You can write your own ticket,” running through my head.

When I got to church, I heard a sermon that changed my life. In a sanctuary filled with a thousand people, I felt that God was talking right to me. The preacher talked about the women going to care for the dead body of Jesus and their shock about what they saw. He talked about Peter and John running to the tomb being astonished at what they found. The Tomb was EMPTY.

On Friday, when they saw Jesus executed, they thought that all of this time they had been wrong. If he could be executed, Jesus must not be the Christ ... But the Tomb was EMPTY.

That changed EVERYTHING!

To me that means that the possibilities are limitless. We aren’t trapped. We have been set free. We don’t have to be ashamed. We don’t have to be afraid. We have been forgiven. We have a new beginning.

And on THAT day, I knew that life was so much bigger and so much fuller than the one that I was living. I was not trapped. I could “write my own ticket,” and the ticket that I wrote took me straight to the Lord. Thanks be to God!

Happy Easter! The Lord is Risen Indeed!

6 comments:

All things are possible through Christ who strengthens me.

He is risen!

Happy Easter.

Wonderful post Cherie. Happy Easter to you and your family :)

And that day you had your Easter.
Have a Blessed Easter.
My poem for the day is about Easter.

Quilly: Indeed! Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Jientje: Happy Easter to you too!

Thom: Thanks! And Happy Easter to you and your family too!

Dr. John: So true.

I just wrote almost these words at Doctor John's place. The hope of the empty grave, and the end really being a new beginning, leaves me feeling limitless expectation for what our God can and does do!

Happy Easter, Cherie!

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