PREPARING TO PREPARE HIM
Today's reading: 1 Corinthians 9-10

I sit this morning waiting for the sun to come up. I'm up even earlier than usual, and that's pretty early.

We are getting ready to attend our church's sunrise service for Easter morning.

It's made me think about the women who got up early the first Easter with the intentions to prepare Christ's body...

I will guess they had made preparations the night before.

Maybe they had laid out their tunics, placed their sandals by the front door and had their baskets of spices ready to take to the garden tomb.

I'm sure, like so many of us, the remainder of their day was planned as well. Maybe a quick stop at the market, take a loaf of bread to an ailing friend, laundry, meal preparation.

They had no idea what was about to happen to them.

I cannot imagine their surprise, their fear, their anxiety, their joy, their questions, their excitement as they stepped inside that tomb and heard the angel's announcement--He is not here. He has risen as He said He would.

I know a bit of that excitement.

I didn't travel to Israel expecting to verify any doubts about an empty tomb.

I knew it was empty, but seeing it with my own eyes, standing in what they believe to be the very spot, validating that it was indeed empty--no bones, no body, no remains...I believe I felt a little of what the women experienced.

And I'm feeling it this morning as I await the sun's rising on this Easter Sunday.

Hallelujah, He is risen!