Let It Go

The Ache for Home

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home to get food, clean clothes, sleep, and love. Home is a safe place where we can be ourselves. Home is where we love and are loved. Our feet may leave, but never our hearts.

We are told that Jesus became human and made his home here with us. This fulfilled what had always been God’s desire. Early on God had told Moses to make Him a sanctuary so that he could dwell among the people.

Jesus Seemed At Home On Earth

Jesus attracted many followers and did many great things for them. Then in the middle of everything He launched a bomb…

From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.
(Matthew 16:21, NLT)

It was difficult for His followers to understand what Jesus was saying. One person in particular who would have a very difficult time was Mary Magdalene.

Jesus had cast 7 demons out of Mary Magdalene. Her life was changed forever.  She was a transformed woman. She owed everything to Jesus. As a result she was with Him at Golgotha and witnessed the crucifixion. She heard His last words. She saw Him die and then be carried off to a tomb.

Then, one morning before dawn, she went to the tomb where he was. But somebody had opened the door and taken His body away. She was weeping loudly, when a person came near her and asked, “Ma’am, why are you crying?” Mary blurted out, “Mister, if you’ve taken him somewhere, just tell me.”

The man then said, “Mary.” She recognized that voice instantly. It was the same voice that that had commanded the horrible darkness that had surrounded her for years to leave. It was Jesus!

Mary ran to hug him, but his response was strange…

“Don’t hang on to me,” he said. “Go and tell the others what’s happening.”

Things Will Never Be the Same

There’s an interesting analogy here. Like Mary, we long for the good ol’ days.  We want things to stay the same. We resist change. We spend our energies wishing things were how they were. The problem is that life is not static. It ebbs and flows. It can be wonderful, it can be painful.

Kids grow up and move away. Some people get married, others don’t. You love people and sometimes they break your heart. People are healed and others die.  Things seem easy at times and then very difficult at other times. Great successes, and then rough failures.

Regrets, hurts, disappointments, or just thinking things were better back in the day, can keep us from experiencing what’s happening all around us right now. If we live stuck in the past, we’re not fully in the present.

Jesus has risen from the dead, and His death and resurrection changed everything, and still does. Things will never be the same.