Picture the scene.
A woman.
Sick for all her life. Tormented inside. In a constant state of chaos.
Then a Healer comes along.
He is able to not only cure her ailment, but bring a new life, free from ever repeating such imprisonment.
This was Mary Magdalene.
The accounts in the Bible talk about a woman, possessed by 7 devils, then healed and released from her tormentors.
Now in the garden, she stands.
Her very Healer, broken Himself. Just hours ago she watched as He was hung on a cross to be crucified. To be mocked. To be rejected by the very men He was choosing to love.
Jesus.
Mary lost her Savior that day in a bloody battle between heaven and hell and she had a front row seat.
And now, in the garden, days after He was buried, she weeps and mourns this man, this God, in whom she would give her own life for.
In the account of John, chapter 20, it says that she stood without the sepulcher weeping.
This kind of weeping is the kind where you can not even see through the tears.
She was so distressed for losing her Savior and so overcome with grief that she didn't even recognize the One who then spoke to her.
Jesus.
He simply asked her why she was crying and who was she looking for.
And He showed Himself FIRST to Mary.
First.
Who was she to be the initial onlooker of the Resurrected? Wasn't this Mary? The one with the past? The one that was possessed by demons, broken, and just a mess?
And yet, Jesus, the One who could have chosen anyone in the world to show Himself to first, decided to come to this woman, crippled by her own grief, tear streaked cheeks, and announce His return.
I don't know about you, but the thought of a God who picks out the weakest and frailest of us all to call on first is the God that I want to serve.
Because I am the weakest.
I have a past.
But in Him, I have a future.
I'm grief stricken and unable to move or see.
But when He calls my name, I will know who beckons me to look up.
Because that is really all He wanted.
He wanted Mary to see Him.
To look up from her sorrow and focus on the One who can bring joy.
My heart rejoices at this thought, that in Him, the tears may still be in my eyes, but I will be able to see, to hear, to know my Savior.
