Today’s devotion is based on the Easter Message: Hope Revealed (Watch Here)
Do you have the tradition of hiding and looking for Easter baskets?
Our family has hidden Easter baskets as far back as I can remember. Somehow Dad always got them hidden before he had to go off to Easter sunrise service. As a dad, over the years, I have found the big hard baskets harder to hide. When we lived in Minnesota, we had soft small baskets which had many more opportunities to hide.
The trick to hiding an Easter basket is to hide it in such a way that the normal looking of things is not disturbed. The greatest compliment to the hider is that a person looking for their basket looks right past it because they think there is no way it can be hidden in…
If you know the size and flexibility of your basket, you may be able to find it easier because you can look in places where one might expect it to be hidden.
Finding an Easter basket is a fun tradition of our culture.
The women of the first Easter weren’t looking for Easter eggs, a basket, or an Easter bunny. They were looking for a body.
Of course there was only one logical place in that time to look for a dead body…in a tomb. Why would one look anywhere else? Especially since they had seen Jesus’ body laid in that very tomb before the Sabbath day began.
They were looking for Jesus, expecting to find his remains in the tomb.
Their perception and the reality of Easter morning were very different.
One can’t fault the women. I probably would have done the same thing.
A dead body placed in the tomb tends to stay in the tomb.
But the challenge for the ladies (and the rest of Jesus’ followers) is that Jesus whom they were looking for was not dead! He was alive!
Luke 24:5 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? 6 He is not here; he has risen!
That morning they had the logical picture of Jesus as a dead person, but they forgot he had said he would rise again. A living Jesus is very much different than a dead Jesus.
Can we do the same thing?
We aren’t looking to put spices and perfume on a body, but sometimes in our faith journey, we are looking for Jesus to show up in a certain way or at a certain time. We craft the way he is to show up in our life based on the outcome we want. We want healing…he should heal us. We want relationship conflict to end…we want him to fix it now. We want financial blessings…we want him to give it to us.
While these and many other situations invite us to seek the Lord Jesus for answers, we maybe have to allow him to show up as HE determines, not always how we dictate.
In our troubles, he may not choose to show up with the end to our trouble, but our strength, peace and comfort amidst the trouble.
In our lack, he may not show up to give us abundance, but he may show up with his faithfulness to provide each day what we need.
In our spiritual journey, he may not show up with great miracles and evidence of his presence, but in the still small voice of his Word settled in our heart.
The ladies weren’t wrong in going to the tomb, they just didn’t have the right picture of the Jesus they were looking for. The angels reminded them of Jesus’ words and then they remembered (see yesterday’s devotion).
Here’s what they realized. When the living Jesus showed up in their lives it was far better and more glorious than the dead body they thought they were looking for!
Apply: What areas of your life have you been seeking God to show up in a certain way or at a certain time? Is it possible he is showing up in a different and better way that you are missing?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for showing up in the glory of your promises and presence. Help me to always be much more aware of how you choose to show up in my life instead of dictating how I want you to show up. AMEN.