“It is worth it to go looking for redemption. It can be found. Healing is possible. Things do grow again. We underestimate our own tremendous capacity for recovery, the capacity of the organism to heal itself.  I know how easy it is to think your ugly is too ugly, your broken is too broken. But this is the whole sum of what I’ve learned. There is no wound too small or too horrible to be a candidate for healing, though that healing may require that you give up more than you ever dreamed. This is the length of God’s arm. Go to the silence. In the silence there is glue. And you may find there too that God is already traveling with you–too big to see, and too close to feel, but as unmoving and generous as the sky.”–What Falls from The Sky; Esther Emery (P. 233)

His arms are spread out on the cross; nails driven through his hands and feet and a crown of thorns dug into his head. A single tear falls from his eye as he looks at his mother. From his lips, he proclaims, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And then he breathes his last. In the silence of that Good Friday, we stand looking up at his lifeless body. He is gently taken down from the cross, wrapped in burial clothes and is taken to the tomb where his body is laid to rest.

Jesus’ mourners walk away from the tomb. Three days later, the women come to the tomb and find the stone rolled away from the entrance. To their shock and dismay, they find the tomb empty. Jesus is not there. Little do they know that he has been raised. As they are walking along, returning to tell the others what they have found, they encounter Jesus. Yet at first, they do not know that it is Jesus. Soon their eyes are opened and they immediately know that Jesus is alive. Jesus has triumphed over death and the grave.

The resurrection declares to us the power of redemption in the world. God redeems the world and all of us. God redeems our brokenness into wholeness. God brings about wholeness when we least expect it. On the cross, God redeemed our sins through the death of his one and only Son. And on Easter morning, God shows us how vast and wide God’s love is for all of us. This love is as vast and wide as a North Dakota prairie sky.

This love embraces us in our brokenness. This love captures us in our beauty and reminds us continually of who and whose we are. This love is a generous love that knows no limits or boundaries. This love is a scandalous love that has the power to overcome death and the grave to resurrect Jesus from that very grave he was placed in. This love shows us the heights and depths to which God will go for God’s beloved children.

Jesus stretched out his arms between the wooden arms of the cross because God loves us that much. Jesus’ outstretched arms, dripping with blood, proclaim that we are never alone. God will never leave us or forsake us. God will forever shower God’s love on all of us. And in this love, we are molded back together again and again through our brokenness.

“Weeping may come for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”–Psalm 30:5 There are so many times when we cannot see that light in the midst of the darkness. Yet Easter proclaims to us the gift in the beauty of the resurrection. Healing does come. But often not in the ways we expect or even want.

In the darkness of the night, Jesus is sitting on the edge of our bed with us wiping away our tears. In the light of Easter morning, Jesus is rejoicing in God’s power and the beauty of new life with us. So when we journey through the wilderness, we must trust in this promise; knowing that life has the ultimate word.

I am linking up with these lovely ladies: Holly and Testimony Tuesday, Kelly and the Ra Ra linkup,
Jennifer and Tell His Story, and Holley and Coffee for your Heart.