His Living Presence
"The earliest reference to the Resurrection is Saint Paul's, and he makes no mention of an empty tomb at all. But the fact of the matter is that in a way it hardly matters how the body of Jesus came to be missing because in the last analysis what convinced the people that he had risen from the dead was not the absence of his corpse but his living presence. And it has been so ever since."
-Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life
Can you remember how it felt to first really and truly see that Christ is alive? Have you encountered him in a way in which your heart was sure that the stories were true about him?
For many of us, these moments of revelation are few in our lives, but they still hold power. We believe in Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection, not just because Jesus' teachings were timeless and quotable, not just because of the historical ripples his life made, but because we have met the risen Christ ourselves.
Perhaps we haven't had the tangible experiences the way those disciples did, having eaten the food he cooked or touched the scars in his hands, but we have seen and believed in his work in our own hearts and in the lives of our loved ones.
In a time when our lives are mostly solitary, and distance threatens to drag us into melancholy, apathy, or faithlessness, let us remember and hold onto the Risen Christ, whose presence has made his memory endure all these 2000+ years. May we open our eyes to see the Risen Christ at work today, preparing a place here for his Kingdom.
Kelsey Lewis Vincent, Pastor to Youth and Families, First Baptist Church of Decatur