That Insurmountable Wall

Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.  Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.  And they said among themselves, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?"  But when they looked up, they saw the stone had been rolled away - for it was very large.  And entering the tomb,  they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting  on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He is risen!  He is not here.  See the place where they laid Him.  But go, tell his disciples - and Peter - that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you."
Mark 16: 1-7 NKJV

Can you imagine the reaction of these women that morning as they journeyed to what they fully expected to be the tomb of this man they knew as Jesus?  For as they walked along, they wondered just how they would open the tomb of their Lord, as the entrance was covered by a large, heavy stone.  What would you expect to see there?  As for me, I would be expecting the obvious, a tomb occupied by the body of Jesus.  Why else would these women be bringing spices to anoint the body of the Lord?  THEY fully expected to find Jesus' body in that tomb!  However, as we all know by now, God had different plans for his one and only Son.  I guess one thing I would tell these women as they walked to the tomb of Jesus that morninng is to expect the unexpected.  This is one thing we should always consider when we deal with Gods timing, expect the unexpected!

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.  By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Hebrews 11: 1-3 NKJV

The elders mentioned here in Hebrews 11, what were they expecting?  Each of the patriarchs listed here in Hebrews, Noah, Abraham, Joseph and Moses, these all fully expected God to deliver on what he had promised.  God promised Noah that he would deliver his family from the floood, and he delivered.  God promised Abraham and Sarah a child in their old age, and he delivered.  As we're told in Hebrews, it is through the stalwart faith of these men of old that carried them.  They trusted God to keep his word.  Far from being just a handful of stories in scripture, these experiences of our forefathers are useful to us in the here and now.  I believe that this was the very purpose of the God breathed scriptures of Hebrews as well as the rest of Gods word.  For it is here that we find help in the face of the turmoil of this world.
What is it that you are facing?  Are you worried about your health?  Jesus told us not to worry about that.  Does it seem like the entire world is against you?  Well, I imagine that our Lord Jesus felt this same way on his path towards his destiny.  My point is this, whatever it is that we are facing today, it's surely nothing that God can't help you with.  Just like those women who journeyed to the tomb of the risen Christ that morning, we often fully expect only what we see in front of us.  All to often, that insurmountable wall we are facing is nothing but a empty tomb!

~Scott~