Saturday – Open Topic

Reading – Matthew 28:1-10

Highlight Verse:

“Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I sometimes imagine what it would be like to be one of the women who first found the empty tomb. My imagination goes something like this:

The beautiful sunrise hit their eyes like a rude party crasher at a wake.

The unlikely pair of women were as different as night and day, but they were drawn together by a common bond. They both loved the man they thought was the Messiah.

Now they trudged through the dawn to complete their task of preparing his body for permanent burial.

On the way to the tomb, they felt like God was adding to their misery by bringing an major earthquake at the worst possible time. The shaking was frightening and brought new worries but they would not be dissuaded from their duty.

Upon arriving at the tomb, they found it open and a man was sitting on the stone. The radiance that came from the man, actually and angel, was nearly lost on the mourning women until he spoke, “He is risen!”

Confusion mixed with joyful hope overcame the women as they ran back to the upper room.

That hope became pure joy when Jesus appeared before them – very much alive!

Tomorrow we celebrate that joyful day when mourning was turned to joy.

I say we bring some of that unbridled joy to our celebrations.

Can you imagine the range of emotions those two women felt that first Easter morning?
Will you share that amazing joy of Easter with someone this weekend?