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.
