Tuesday, April 13

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.
—John 20:11

How often do we stand outside the tomb weeping? How often are we so consumed with the things that are happening or have happened in our lives that we are completely unaware of the possibilities for new life that are just ready to crack open?

The tombs in our life are many: We lose the one we love most in the world;we are plagued with health problems; our career is going nowhere; our child is struggling; our friends abandon us; shadows from our past are exposed; our finances are in shambles. The list could go on and on. When such tombs appear in our life, we first draw inward into a deep and empty place, and then we weep over our hopeless situation.

Yet, even though our daily lives seem grounded in chronological time—time comprised of seconds, minutes, and hours—we actually dwell in the timelessness of heaven. In that timelessness, resurrection is always occurring. Stones are always being rolled away from tombs. New life is always being given. It's as if in the midst of death, new life is already pregnant within us.

When we stand outside the tomb weeping, we are doing what is natural in the light of difficult circumstances. We are flooding heaven's gate with our plea for mercy. Little do we know that heaven has, as the prophet Isaiah proclaimed, heard us even before we began asking. Already pulsations of energy are coming together that will lead us forth from the tomb to greet the light of life.

Gracious God, let me see through my tear-filled eyes the shimmer of light coming.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2008.