Today’s Devotional
Someone left the porch light on all night. You notice it in the morning, when the sun has already risen and the light is no longer necessary. It kept burning anyway, faithful to its small job, unaware that the darkness it was made for had already passed.
The women who walked to the tomb that morning carried spices for a dead body. They had a plan. They knew exactly what they were going to do, and every step of that walk was shaped by what they believed was still true: that the worst thing had happened, and now all that remained was tending to the aftermath. They were even worried about the stone, how to move it, who would help. They were solving a problem that had already been solved before they left the house.
Mark tells us the stone was already rolled away. Not rolling. Not being moved as they arrived. Already moved. Already done. The angel sitting inside did not say “watch this.” He said, “don’t be alarmed.” As if the first thing the resurrection needed to say to a human heart was: you can stop bracing yourself now. The thing you came here dreading has already changed while you were walking toward it. I think about how much of life is spent preparing for a version of reality that is no longer accurate. Rehearsing speeches for conversations that have already shifted. Carrying supplies for a grief that God has already entered and rearranged. The women were working from old information. And the angel’s job, before anything else, was to update what they believed was still true.
Time to reflect
Let the empty tomb ask you some honest questions:
- What situation in your life are you still approaching as though the worst outcome is the final one?
- Where have you been so focused on the size of the stone that you haven’t looked up to see if it has already moved?
- Is the fear you are carrying today based on what is actually happening, or on what you assumed would happen?
- When was the last time something changed for the better while you were still bracing for the worst?
Prayer Of The Day
God, I confess that I have been walking toward stones I expected to find still in place. I have been carrying the weight of outcomes that you have already touched, already changed, already made new. Forgive me for the mornings I spent rehearsing defeat when you had already written something different. Open my eyes the way you opened them for those women at the tomb. Give me the courage to believe that what I find when I arrive may not be what I feared on the way there. Teach me to trust the update, even when my hands are still full of what the old story required. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Strengthening Faith
The resurrection calls us to act from hope, not from old fear. Here are ways to let go of the old information today:
- Name one situation you have been dreading. Write it down. Then write beside it: “What if this has already changed and I don’t know it yet?”
- Send a message to someone who is going through a hard season. Not advice. Just the words: “I’m thinking about you today.”
- Read Luke 24:1-12, the parallel account of the empty tomb. Notice what the disciples believed and what they had to see for themselves.
- Identify one plan you have been making based on a worst-case assumption. Ask yourself honestly whether the assumption is still accurate, or whether you are carrying spices to an empty tomb.
- Before bed tonight, say out loud one thing that turned out better than you expected it to. Let yourself feel the surprise of it again.
Today Wisdom
A locked door and an open door look the same from down the hallway. You only learn which one it is when you reach for the handle. Most of the courage we need is not for what comes after; it is for the walk toward it, when we still believe the worst.
