Move Your Stone

“On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.” (John 20:1) Such a discovery!  The stone had been moved and where was the Lord?

There are so many depictions of this scene that can cause us to reflect and wonder on the joy of the resurrection.  There is a radiant light emitting from the cavernous tomb.  One can see the burial cloths left behind where Jesus lay.  The huge boulder is resting beside the opening to the tomb.  Mary of Magdala is bowed down with a sense of bewilderment and extreme sadness.  What has become of the Lord?  Who has taken him?  What does the future hold for his disciples?

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LENT

I was searching recently for a graphic to insert in a flyer for a Lenten book discussion group. So many of the images were inspiring! There were abstract crosses of numerous varieties; there were pictures of desert wastelands with tiny flowers emerging from rock crevices; and there were Lenten collages with crowns of thorns, palm branches and loaves of bread. What caught my attention, however, were the sayings that accompanied the graphics. I want to focus on three of these.

“Return to the Lord your God.” We hear this often when speaking of Lent, but what does it really mean to us? Do we really have to return? What if we have never left? We are all sinners and this is a time for us to change our ways. We need to return to the bosom of the God who loves us and rededicate ourselves to him.