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Topic: light (05/24/04)
TITLE: The stone By gillian liversedge 05/26/04 |
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Looking back, I have no idea at all if the sun shone during those few days. Rain or shine, bright or dull, I really don’t know. I do know, however, that my heart was dull and heavy.
At first, we just wept. As we attended to his body, we wept without questioning, concentrating only on the task at hand. We worked in near darkness. It suited our mood. But later, as we left that place and journeyed home, the questions came in force. Why? What had he done to make them hate him so? He brought them only love, joy, peace and hope- yet they rejected him, killing him in such a brutal way, and taking from us everything. How we wept, and how our heavy hearts wondered. Would we ever understand?
It was early in the morning three days later that we arose to tend his needs. We hadn’t slept, and were keen to be near him again. At least, that morning, we had a question that maybe we could answer- who would roll away the stone for us? I thought that it would be easier to remove that stone from his tomb than to take the heavy stone from within my heart.
Then as we approached, another puzzle. The stone was gone, pushed to one side, and the tomb lay empty. Distraught, I looked about wildly, seeking an answer. The gardener was there, and I cried out to him, “Sir, they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him!” Then He spoke.
“Mary!” I fell to my knees and wept, for it was He!
“Go and tell the others,” He said. “I am not dead, but alive!” Such joy, such lightness filled my heart. Darkness and heaviness all gone, because the Son Himself was shining down on me!