For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
Mary Magdalene went early. While it was still dark. She headed to where she thought the One she loved was.
I think sleep was elusive, her heart heavy and hurting, sides heaving with sobs. Her sadness and angst didn’t feel light or momentary. I think heartsick and hopelessness hovered around her. When her weary footsteps reached the tomb, she didn’t see what she was expecting.
There at the tomb, she saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance!
Mary ran!
Mary reported to Peter and John what she couldn’t see or find. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put Him!”
The disciples ran.
They looked.
They saw an empty tomb and strips of linen.
They went away wondering.
But Mary stays and Mary stands outside the tomb weeping.
She turns and sees Jesus, but she doesn’t realize it is Jesus.
She SEES, but she doesn’t.
“Woman,” He says, “Why are you crying?”
He knows why.
He sees.
Oh, I can hear the tenderness in His tone and see the sympathizing softness in His steady gaze.
But Mary sees a gardener.
Mary says, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him and I will get Him.”
A bit of hope in her heart to perhaps find His body.
Jesus says one thing. “Mary.”
Mary cries out in recognition.
Mary sees!!!
Eternal glory had surrounded her the whole time, but she couldn’t see it. Her focus hadn’t found it.
Mary proclaims. “I have seen the Lord!”
Mary’s day started early, in the dark and ended by finding the Light. Her focus forever changed!
We live by faith, not by sight. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:7
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. ~ Romans 8:18, 24-25
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him! They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked to us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us? ~ Luke 24:31a, 32
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new is come! ~ 2 Cor 5:17
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018
