“Like a mother’s early morning call to awaken, Mary Magdalene recognized him by the calling of her name.* Hearing our own names, we sit bolt upright in the tomb, folding the shroud that had covered our faces. To see and be seen is to be raised up. To be able to watch the opening and unfolding of your new life, lying before you like a chest of gold, a sacred map, an ever expanding fan from the Orient, engraved with your initials.
Have you ever heard a broken person crying grateful tears of rescue? No, not broken…broken open. Untied, yet not undone. Spirit moves back into the body with a torrent, spilling all over the floor, like the sweet oil Mary used to bless her friend. An intoxicating love. This rising tide, tireless in her work, wipes clean the sand. An endless beating heart. A reassuring return. You cannot push or pull her…only slip into the flow of her unwinding arms, coaxed into that new heart of yours.
Is there a part of you that’s been dead for a long while? Call its name.
Nurture the bold little shoot rising from your winter’s ground. Look at all
the greening that is going on. What a gift to see another spring. We are
perennials after all.
I had a vision. The risen ones were walking around a room full of lost and
lonely children, touching each cheek, fingers lifting each chin, whispering
into each hungry gaze, “Rise…rise…rise”. To be seen by that one face. To
hear that one voice that has never stopped calling your name.
Questions to ponder:
- What would new life look like for you?
- What part of you needs to be raised up?
-Jim Marsh, Jr., Bread of Life Church
