It's All About that Grace, 'bout that Grace, 'bout that Grace

Luke 24:1-6
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,  but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.  In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen! 

After the spring plows turned the dirt in the fields, my family and I would walk the rows searching for arrowheads. While everyone else in my family seemed to have a knack for finding tips and pieces of flint tools I wandered off, as most little girls would, to find shiny, pretty stones. I got especially excited when I found a rock with "glitter."

But my childish excitement for a sparkly rock diminishes in comparison to the awe Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome must have felt the day they found a stone, or should I say "the stone" rolled away from Jesus' tomb. After witnessing their friend's terrible death on Friday, they'd gone home and rested on the Sabbath before they'd prepared the spices needed to anoint Jesus' body. On Sunday morning, they gathered their supplies and walked to the tomb. The book of Mark reports that the women wondered who might roll away the huge stone that blocked the entrance to Jesus' burial place. But when they arrived, WOW! the huge rock had been rolled to the side of the tomb. And their beloved friend was gone. Not stolen, not placed in another cave, but gone, of his own volition.

And those angels, those wonderful good-news bringing, dressed in white angels, shared the fantastic news with those precious ladies that Jesus had conquered death. Blessed Jesus died a cruel death so that I might live forever. Then God raised him up and breathed life back into him. Can you feel the amazement and excitement? I can. Are you overwhelmed with the mercy and grace Jesus poured out? I am. Praise God for this beautiful joy-filled reason we celebrate Easter.

Rejoice in the Lord! He is risen!!!