Mysteries So Bright

That’s what Jesus said as part of “I go to prepare a place for you…if it were not so, I would have told you.”

This morning as I read chapter 14 of the gospel of John, I was suddenly struck by this truth (at least I think what was revealed is true):

We believers and lovers of Jesus have a strong, persistent longing in our hearts for His return. It is a very sweet longing that helps grow our fondness and love for Him.

If, say, He had returned when I was young in the Lord, and this longing had not grown over the years where pain and distress have been common, then I would have missed that period of yearning, of that hunger and thirst which will be assuaged when He does finally come.

Mary, who could not stay away from the garden where the body of her Lord lay, experienced a moment in history that no one else got to see. It was the result of her strong longing for Him to return from death, even though that hope was not really in her head, and she was overwhelmingly surprised when He did show Himself as fully human again on that Resurrection morning.

The bottom line: I am glad that the Father has delayed His return so that I, too, could experience something that I would have missed – it makes the suffering all worthwhile. Amen.