“Have you checked under the bed?” was my mother’s advice whenever I had misplaced something. I said it to my children too. My sister and I pondered Mary Magdalene’s experience with the resurrected Christ. She was going to the tomb thinking she would find the body of Jesus but found the body missing. After all, that was where she saw him last put! Peter and John didn’t believe her and went to the tomb also to see that indeed the body was missing. The tomb was the logical place to find Jesus, as that was where he had last been seen. The challenge is that God’s logic does not work like our logic.
God tells us to love our enemies and to turn the other cheek. Resting one day a week will help us to be better workers the other six days. I listened to a podcast about the success of Chick-fillet. One day a week they are closed and yet bring in profits exceeding another top fast food competitor. It is in the death of Christ that we find eternal life. That does not make sense to our minds. The angel said he has risen and they were to return to Galilee. That doesn’t make sense. God’s ways challenge us to take steps of faith, trusting God rather than ourselves.
The Easter testimonies we will look at for seven weeks do relate “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the word of life. (1 John 1:1)” The resurrection story was experienced by real people that really saw, heard, felt, smelled and tasted the events. It is not fiction. It is fact. Perhaps the question I need to ask myself is, “Where am I looking for Jesus today?”
Matthew 22:31and 32 says,
31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living.”
We look for God in places of life, among the living, for he is the God of the living. It is hard to believe as we cannot see, people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but like Mary, we can hear God today call our name. We can feel love in a hug. We can see God in nature. We can feel God in the laughter of children. And we can taste God’s blessings in forgiveness. If you are having trouble connecting with God, perhaps you are looking in the wrong place. A good place to start looking is in a place of life.
On the Way to Wonder 