Seeing the Unseen

Some look and see only emptiness while others look and see things unseen and invisible.  On that resurrection morning long ago Peter and John raced each other to the tomb to see an unthinkable thing that Mary Magdalene had said to be true.  "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb..."  (John 20:2) she told them.  When they breathlessly arrived, they saw only signs that a dead body had been placed in the darkness of the tomb, but nothing more.      

After they left the tomb for home, Mary "bent over to look into the tomb..."  (John 20:11)  What she saw were two angels.  If the angels had been there when Peter and John looked, they were there in the invisible realm.  But, what they did not see, Mary saw.  Perhaps, they revealed themselves to Mary, or maybe she had a heart that enabled her to see what mere eyes could not see.     

Angels show up often in the pages of the Holy Word.  Likely enough, we each have our favorite angel story.  Of course, few of us talk about angel stories that point to some moment of personal encounter with  these divine servants of the Almighty. (Hebrews 1:14)  We can only wonder why these holy servants have remained in the invisible realm instead of revealing themselves in such a way as to be seen.  Perhaps, it speaks of our inability to see what is not seen, or maybe, like Peter and John we arrive in the present with our own expectations of what there is to see and then hurry back to whatever it is we know as our comfort zone.