The season of bunnies, jelly beans, and colorful plastic eggs is over. How much candy did you eat? :)
This past weekend I had the luxury of having all of Saturday to myself (if you're a mom, you understand why it's a luxury!) And it was on the day, tucked between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, that I pondered this idea most of the day: on this day 2,000 years ago, Jesus' mother, Mary, would have been mourning the death of her son.
Did you stop to thing about that on Saturday? If I were her, I would have been an emotional basket-case by this point. It is stated in three of the four gospels that she was there at the foot of the cross until Jesus passed (Luke stated simply that there were "women who followed Jesus watching from a distance.) In fact, in John, Jesus talks to her from his position on the cross and in the midst of all his pain in order to secure John as her benefactor.
Since I have never lost a child, I cannot even begin to imagine the depth of pain she was going through. However, I'm sure that in those moments of her deepest despair she questions God and His plan in all this, just as Christ did. The continuous question of "WHY?" would have plagued my mind over and over.
But...we have an advantage on Mary. We know the end of the story.
We know that on the third day he rose from the dead after spending three days battling death, hell and the grave so that our sins might be forgiven and we might have eternal life.
Can you imagine the joy she felt when the other Marys came pounding on the door that Sunday morning and relaying the story of the unconscious guards, the empty tomb and the angel?!?! There would have been a fresh flood of tears, but these would be of joy and not sorrow.
What about you? Is there a situation in your life that you are mourning? Could it be a relationship that seems dead or a wayward child? Are you mourning the loss of your health or the loss of financial stability?
You may be spending years in mourning, where Mary only had a few days of it, but her joy on the third day can be your joy.
Reconciliation and peace can and will be yours; just don't lose sight of the end of the story: Jesus wins. And with Christ, so can you.
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