Monday, March 2, 2015

I told you so

For me, creation is absolutely a form of prayer. When I letter or paint a piece of scripture I'm writing it on my heart. Creating art from His words is like painting a target on His promises and saying 'this is the one Lord'. What we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, right? Jesus tells us that words and our actions have power, and not just any power, His power.

 

 

Mary Magdalene is one of my very favorites. So much of her story is my story. Both the stain and the salvation. And Mary walked beside Jesus. In today's world there are still those in the church who feel as though women are not fit to be disciples, to speak and teach and lead. That they are to be seen and not heard. But Mary was loud. She was loud for her Jesus. This during a time when a woman could be stoned to death for being seen alone with a man who was not her husband or relative!

 

 

So yeah, I feel like I 'get' Mary. Like we would have been friends. I love to imagine how she felt - what it would feel like to have those loving, compassionate, on - fire eyes of Jesus turned full on your face. The depths of your freedom and salvation conveyed in His glance, the tone of His voice. Mary knew sin. Luke describes her as having been freed from seven (!) demons. Demons don't take up residence in clean homes, they can't find an open door. I know sin. And like Mary, I know freedom. We can know Jesus' spiritual presence, which in and of itself is an immeasurable gift, but Mary had His physical presence. Can you imagine it with me? Jesus, in the flesh, close enough to touch. How could there be any doubt? Any impulse to serve Him with anything less than the entirety of your being? For Mary, there wasn't.

 

 

It was Mary who stood before His tomb on Easter morning as the angel of the Lord said to her, 'He is not here; He is risen, just as He said'. Imagine Mary's heart in that moment! Shouting, I knew it!!! The Lord had been good to Mary, He set her free from her affliction, He kept His promise. As He does for each and everyone of us He calls His own. Are we shocked that He kept this promise as well? I just love how it's so matter of fact too - He is risen just as He said. I told you so. I can almost see the smirk on His face. How fast their sorrow must have turned to joy in that moment! The realization that He kept His promise, that it was stronger than even the grave. And if He can keep that promise - if He can bring life from death and joy from sorrow and freedom from crucifixion - what promise is too great for Mary's Jesus?! For my Jesus? For your Jesus?

 

 

This man of ours, He conquered death for us sisters. There is nothing on either side of heaven not under His dominion and He. Loves. You. Don't give up right before He fulfills His promise to you. Like Mary we have to wait at the tomb well past the point of hope. You know the ask, seek, knock, verse in the book of Matthew? In the Amplified bible it reads this way -

 

 

"Keep on asking and it will be given to you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, the door will be opened" Matthew 7:7-8 AMP

 

Keep on. I love that. If you ask and don't recieve, keep on asking. Keep on searching, bang on every damn door. What prayer have you buried? What promise have you long since given up on seeing fulfilled? Keep on. The stone will never be rolled away if you walk away before He moves it. He is standing just beyond impossible waiting to say I told you so.