Before the (Easter) Dawn - More Seeds of Hope

Today’s story seed is Before the Dawn. From Psalm 51, verse 12 A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. No one knows, but what if… after Jesus was taken down from the cross and his body laid in the tomb, Mary, Mother of Jesus, sat in the house of a friend. Devastated as she was, people came to express their condolences. We can imagine the trauma of those people, who believed Jesus would set Israel free. Their whole world was shaken. Maybe Mary showed concern for those people as best she could, even though under her consoling outer politeness, she was ready to scream, ready to crawl under a rock, ready to give her life so that her son might live. And the next day was the same. People coming, talking, crying, praying, sitting, eating, leaving. A blur for the Mother of Jesus. When she lay down for sleep, she felt her whole world ending. Just suppose that she woke up long before the dawn on that second night. One phrase from her son stuck in her mind. She said out loud, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” As she said this, she remembered the angel Gabriel coming to her. She said once again very quietly, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Now she saw in her mind’s eye her pregnant cousin Elizabeth. Then she saw herself pregnant and Jesus being born and laying on her chest. “The kingdom of God is at hand.” She remembered his first step and how Joseph used to toss him in the air and catch him. Mary remembered his first words, his first prayer, and the time he fell out of a tree and nearly broke his neck. “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Now she remembered the wedding feast at Cana and how Jesus’ disciples drank a bit too much. And she recalled the multitudes eating on the hillside, sharing bread and fish. She had a vivid image of when a blind man regained his sight, and a paralyzed man stood up and walked. “The kingdom of God is at hand.” And then it came, the image of Jesus on the cross. In the silence, and pain, that image lingered. But slowly a thought surfaced. The kingdom of God is love. And love cannot be stopped. Perhaps he had to die so that all that would remain would be the love he taught. She pledged to carry that love always, to continue what he had started. Her eyes wet with tears, she rolled over, felt his calming presence, and fell back to sleep. We all know what happens when Mary rises the next day, but what we don’t know is what will happen in our lives later today. We could say that it’s a clean slate. We have been emptied out. We have been trying all Lent to clean up our heart, to rip open the callousness that keeps us from being a loving person. Whatever happens, like Psalm 51 says today, “…a steadfast spirit renew within me.” Good things and bad things will happen. Can we hang in there through it all and spread the love that Jesus taught? At this moment, the kingdom of God is at hand. Pause, breathe, and feel that which is coming into your life. Mother Mary and her son are sending you love. Now let’s take 30 seconds to water the seed… How do you stay steadfast in your love?