October 21, 2024
When my family gets together, we love to reminisce. We get loud – really loud. Each of us tries to speak over the other, often interrupting to input our versions of a story told countless times before. My nephew says we tell the same stories over and over. To that, I say, “So?”
This week, my beloved and I visited my sister and her family. It was the same – only louder. And so fun. The laughter was good medicine. We recalled our first trips to the beach, our first expensive meal there in the early 1980’s (and all the dumb things we said to the server), going to the lake with my grandfather, and decades of memories since. We were so jazzed at the end of the evening it was hard to fall asleep. We wanted to squeeze every moment out of the time together.
Conversations often turned to our precious mother. How we miss her. We spoke in quieter tones sharing tender stories of her love, courage, and encouragement to us and so many. We retell, with tears, the miracles God worked for all of us. Red Sea-sized miracles. And we cry a little. We remembered her words and pondered our last times together before she went to Heaven. At her sudden passing, our hearts hurt immensely, yet we were comforted by knowing she was with Jesus. We know we will see her again in Heaven one day. It was what she had taught us. Now we cling to that truth.
As Easter approaches, I wonder if it was the same with the disciples. I can only imagine the things they had seen and felt sharing everyday life with Jesus. Walking with the Messiah, day in and day out, seeing the lives He changed, sharing meals, I wonder if they were so wound up it was hard for them to fall asleep at night. Did they often retell events around a campfire, each one getting louder as they put in their two cents? Did Jesus smile as He listened?
And then, though He had warned them, the unthinkable happened. Jesus was arrested, beaten, and horrifically crucified. Before their very eyes. How devastated they must have been. They had put their faith and trust in Him. How terrified they must have been, thinking they were next. How confused they must have been, trying to make sense of His death, trying to remember His words.
That Good Friday must have seemed anything but “good.” The Savior of the world, the long-awaited Messiah had been murdered. Buried. And it was hard. Heart-broken, they were frozen in place by an unknown future.
But … Sunday came! Through the devastation, through the terror, through the confusion, Jesus arose!
Luke 24 shares some of the events of that first Easter morning. The women had gone to the tomb but found that Jesus was gone. Wondering what it meant, two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning, were quick to speak to them: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you…” And then they remembered His words!
As Easter approaches, let us ponder the events of Jesus’ last week. It’s a story worth remembering and retelling again and again!
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Dawn Reed is a pastor's wife and newspaper columnist. Reach her at preacherwife7@yahoo.com.
