He lets me see Him

Genesis 29; Esther 5; Matthew 28; Acts 28

This week I talked with a young woman whose mother died, young and unexpectedly. She was there when it happened and described how her skin changed color and how her mom was there and then she was gone.

This morning when I read about the women going to the tomb of Jesus, I tried to imagine what they were thinking. In those days, death likely happened in the home. Families were accustomed to having a body to wash and prepare for burial. They were familiar with what they wanted to do, but the death of Jesus was not like any other.

And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. (Matthew 28:2–6)

When my mother died, I wrote a poem that included the line, “You were just here.” I wonder if those women felt that sense of sudden loss, that moving of life out of a human body, the changes that happen and that we witness if we are there. Did they think of Jesus in terms of Him leaving them? And what did they think when they felt the earth shake? Or when the angel told them He had risen?

This was no ordinary death. They were instructed to go and tell His disciples He was alive and that they would see Him in Galilee. It is little wonder that they “departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy” and ran to do just that.

Jesus met them on the way.

Of course He did. There are some things that God knows we must actually see. He knows “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1) but He also knows and arranged it so that our faith is not imagination, wishful thinking, or anything we conjure up because we want something to be true. Believing in Jesus does involve seeing, whether words on a page or miracles or Him right before their eyes. .

When Jesus came into my life, I ‘saw’ Him; not with my eyes and yet there was a strange light. When He came, He gave me an ability to see the unseen. Before Jesus, I didn’t connect the dots of life, could not see the purpose behind events or how they worked together for the good of His people. I could not see the wonder in creation or the wonder in redemption. Jesus gave me eyes to see His kingdom and righteousness, His power and glory. Oddly, it took longer to see how much He loves me, maybe because of my slowness to understand what love really is, but He did let me see it.

My first glimpse of death as a new Christian was when my mentor’s husband died. I will never forget the way she focused on him being with Jesus, saying grief was simply being sorrow for herself, of delight that her husband’s faith was now sight. God, in amazing grace, gave her enough of a glimpse of glory to add deep joy to her mix of emotions. She missed him but would see him again. She knew where he was. She could see the hand of Jesus in all of it.

The women at the tomb were getting their instructions about death. It cannot hold the Savior nor can it hold anyone in whom the Savior lives. They ran to tell, yes with fear but also great joy.

Today, the Word of God describes how I am feeling. This makes me aware of His ability to grant daily experiences of whatever I need to experience. When His friend died, “Jesus wept.” This deepens my faith as He allows me to see how greatly He understands and empathizes with this very human condition of sorrow and loss alongside the joyful reality that He is here and He knows because He is life, eternal life.