Stopping Short

 

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. John 20:11

She had almost made it. But less than a dozen steps from a life-changing revelation, Mary stopped. Her eyes told her that the tomb was empty; her fear decided what that meant. The Lord, her best friend, her future was gone. All she saw was emptiness, so all she could do was cry. We now know that if she’d pressed on in faith, she would have had no reason to cry. But because she chose to view the empty tomb through the lens of defeat, she missed the miracle. We do that too.

Faith means that we don’t stand outside the answer and cry in defeat. It’s true that God’s ways and workings are sometimes impossible to understand. When we can’t see Him or hear Him, all we see emptiness, and our fears decide what that means. Like Mary, we think we see the whole picture and we react to that understanding—often in defeat. But the empty tomb did not mean what Mary thought it meant. And many times, our emptiness does not mean what we think it means either. God specializes in the impossible. What appears to be ultimate defeat is often merely the prelude to a life-changing revelation.

Maybe your emptiness does not mean what you think it means. Trust God, or you might miss the miracle.

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