Morning Light

As John tells us about Resurrection morning, we find ourselves immersed in a story that begins in darkness and moves toward light breaking open the morning.  While we know that Mary Magdalene's first arrival at the empty tomb was in the darkness, we can only surmise that some of the darkness must have broken to allow John and Peter to run to the place where Jesus had been placed in the tomb.  Surely, some light was shining when they arrived enabling them to see who was missing from the tomb.

 

And, of course, by this time Mary Magdalene has made it back to the place she had left in the darkness.  When she peers into the dark tomb there was enough morning light coming over her shoulder for her to see the two angels inside.  Of course, the angels may have made a light of their own!  Hardly had she turned around when she saw the One she supposed to be the gardener.  By this time light was surely breaking enough for things seen dimly to be seen clearly.  It was in this light that Jesus came into view and called her name.

The world in which we live and breathe in our relationship with Jesus is the world of faith.  Faith does not always provide the ability to see things clearly.  What it does do is point us forward into the world where reality is often only dimly seen like a roadside direction sign obscured by fog.  From it we learn something of what is ahead, but we must move forward to see it.  From the moment Mary left her home in that early morning darkness, she was moving toward an encounter with the risen Lord.  What she could not see clearly in the beginning, she finally saw as she arrived in His presence.  Our journey through our own darkness will finally bring us to Him as well.  Count on it!