My devotion this morning has me thinking towards Easter.

My devotion this morning has me thinking towards Easter. That means contemplations about Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem just days before he would be betrayed and crucified. It's got me thinking about things like the Cross, the tomb and the empty state it was found in three days after the Crucifixion.

The tomb is such anathema to the world. As I get older, I understand why. There have been lots of great teachers in the history of the world (admittedly, none as good as Christ). So, for Christ to have been a great teacher is easy for the world to admit. For His teachings to be revolutionary, no one has a problem conceding. The fact that He willingly died for the world is not such a far stretch either--there have been many men and women who gave their lives for people they loved or for a cause they believed in. But the tomb...oh, the tomb. "Experts" and cynics have tried for two thousand years now to explain this empty tomb. They have conjured up stories, myths, and other people's bones just to have cause for denying the tomb's reality.

"People simply die and that is all," they would tell you. Jesus died too. PERIOD.

Jesus erased the period and capped off the end of His earthly life with an exclamation point--one that said death is no more and sin has no more power (1 Corinthians 15). I know it's not Easter yet but such great news cannot be contained in one brief day out of each year. Rather, it must be the song that is sung from a thousand choirs and the announcement of heralds from a thousand times a thousand mountain tops. Jesus is alive and death is no more. Such news brings hope and freedom. It gives definition to our frail existence here and causes us to long for the presence of God. And it reminds me daily that I will see loved ones again. Don't know when, don't know what it will look like. I just know, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, the resurrection is real and that changes everything!