His Voice...

I regularly get the devotional Girlfriends in God emailed to me. So every morning as we are eating breakfast I pop open my email to read that devotion. Today was a real eye opener. The devotional verse was John 20:20 and the author of the devotion went on to describe that morning as Mary discovered Jesus' body missing from the tomb. As I read the authors telling of how that morning, there was a particular section that really stuck out to me. When Mary is in the tomb after the disciples have left her to tell the others that Jesus' body was missing, the "Gardener" appears. Mary looked at Jesus and did not recognize Him at all. The man that she dearly loved and followed, washed His feet with her hair and worshipped she did not recognize until He spoke. His voice when He spoke her name, "Mary" did she finally recognize who He was. He wasn't just a gardener that may know what happened to her Lord. It was Him, her Lord. As I read that I contemplated how many times the Lord has been right in front of me and I haven't recognized Him, whether He has appeared through someone or some instance that has happened. And how many times have I recognized His voice and not my own telling me what I want to hear. This email today encourage me to study the Word more, pray more diligently and to grow closer in my walk with the Lord so I don't miss the moments when the Lord is right in front of me and so I don't miss the moments when He says my name. The devotional wasn't about that subject it had another great point which was this, Jesus kept His scars. That was the way the disciples recognized who He was by His scars. Why the Creator of the Universe the Ultimate Healer why would He keep His scars? Because it was by those wounds we His people were saved, by those wounds He proved who He was to His disciples. And by the past wounds we all have in our lives that now bear scars, we can prove who He is by the healing He has given us giving us those "scars." I am so excited to be celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord this weekend. Its not all about the bunnies, baskets and eggs, it's about Him and the fact that the tomb is empty. Praise our Risen Savior! Hear His voice!