Not The Same Anymore

As we celebrate another holiday, many of us will have an empty place at our tables…..empty of a loved one, but not empty of our shared memories. For me, it is my mom and dad. They were both such a big part of my life; yet in their senior years, cancer took residence in each of their bodies…. Daddy left us first, and then just two short years later, mom was gone.

For a while I felt like the biggest part of my life was over; what would I do now? Who would/could I trust and love the way I did these two wonderful people? For a while I felt like I had been abandoned…..yet for all those years under their wings, I was not the same as I had been….

Isn’t that just how it was with Jesus? For three years He was the very center of at least twelve men’s lives. Day in and day out….they traveled together, they ate together, they talked, they learned, they prayed.

And then in one tragic day, it was all over. He was gone….life as they had known it was over. What were they to do now? Many of them returned to their former lives…..but they were different now.

I wonder, did they just hang around their fishing nets? Did they somehow feel like the meaning for their lives was now empty and with no direction? Did they just “hang out” with no real purpose?

AND THEN……and then, is was the first day of the week!!! The unbelievable news that the tomb was EMPTY!!!!!!!! JESUS HAD RISEN!! HALLELUJAH!!!

Fast forward to “2002”……where are we now in our relationship with Jesus? Where am I? Where are you? Are we taking full advantage of what Christ had done for us?

And lastly, can our friends and our families see that because of Calvary, we are “not the same anymore”?