Awakened to Eternity
I
The day of rest past—
rest prescribed by
law,
rest that refreshed
her body
and eased the fatigue
of the harrowing day spent at Golgotha,
yet brought no relief
to her grief—
Mary [Magdalene] made
her way early
to the garden where
the priceless treasure of her master’s body lay,
that tabernacle so
cruelly ransacked and emptied of the glow of life.
Night’s veil was not
yet lifted from the earth,
but already a faint
glimmer spilled over the horizon’s edge,
pushing back the shadows
and spreading its
soft light through the garden as Mary entered there.
Yet even as the dawn
began to break,
desolate darkness
and black fear blinded her eyes,
for she’d come in
one last act of kindness
to anoint her Beloved
with sweet spices—
and found the tomb
and grave cloths empty
and his body gone!
“O Gardener, tell me
where you’ve laid my Lord,
that I might see him
once again!”
Then Mary heard her
name
as only he could speak
it
and knew him in the
sound of it.
Joy rushed in upon
her,
and in the morning
sun,
her heart was filled
(like the garden ’round
about her)
with new life and
vitality.
II
I too seek my Lord
with love’s longing.
Now go to him, my soul.
You’ll find him (as
Mary did so long ago)
waiting for you in
the garden as in a lovers’ trysting place.
In that fair place
where seed has fallen
to its death
(buried in its own
earthen grave beside his tomb)
and now springs forth
in fruitfulness and fragrance,
he wipes away all
tears
and speaks my name
in voice my ears have ever strained to hear,
restorer of my life
and herald of my wakening
into eternity.
