When I was eight I stood at a pulpit like this one as an inactive member. I think of the suffering that little girl went through. At the start of this meeting you saw my six-year-old son at this pulpit. Knowing he won't have to go through what I did, knowing he knows Christ now, it is a miracle.

Christ can transform families. He transformed me. I'm not Mary Magdalene, but I feel I've been healed as if I'd been in the New Testament.

So glad the first speaker told the story of Mary Magdalene. I love that story. The image of Mary looking into the darkness of the empty tomb. He is not here. How many times have I stared into the darkness of sorrow? There is a time when he is there, at the bottom, below all I've been through. Then there is a time when the suffering is done. A time to look away from the tomb.

This to me is repentance. The moment Mary turns. She does not immediately recognize Jesus. So I turn and turn and turn again between the empty tomb and the resurrected Savior. 

I know He is risen because I see Him in my life. He is the sunrise every morning, cotton candy pink or blue and yellow. Art made whether or not anyone is looking. 

He is the frost sparkling in the winter sun. 

He sends me flowers, birds, a text from a friend just when I need them. He knows me and what I need. 
Once, I found a fledgling starling, cat-caught and dying. I took it to the rescue center. I held my hurt little self as gently as the starling that day.

That starling was a gift to me from a loving Savior. A story we wrote together to heal me from PTSD.

Starlings are noisy birds. Invasive. Disliked. They seem to be black, black. Except in the right light, their feathers turn as iridescent as a hummingbird's throat or a peacock’s tail feathers. Little hearts dot their feathers like stars. Even the darkest grief, the most unpleasant circumstances becomes iridescently beautiful in his hands. Through the sorrow, not past it.

 

Through the sorrow, turn to the Savior, allow His joy.
 

I testify that He is risen because I see Him every day of my life. 
 

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen