No Bulls Required

IMAGE SOURCE: SHEA FAM ARCHIVES Harry (My Daddy-O) Shea The Bullfighter! Toro! Toro!

Greetings & Blessings Fam & Friends of Team MissionAccess!  I pray everyone had a Blessed Resurrection Day Celebration 2017.  But wait!  Before we rush off to our regularly-scheduled lives I beg you to Abide with me just a while longer while we “roll back the stone” on an Aspect of Awesomeness you may never have considered before.

Here is a Diary entry for Easter Sunday 2008 (just before Beloved and I started attending BBT):

DIARY 032308 EASTER SUNDAY!

John 20:11-18 NASU

11 But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 And they said to her, ” Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ” Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, ” Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'”  18 Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!

Thank Heaven He is Risen ‘cause like dozing disciples we slept in!  Having worshipped Friday evening and risen early Saturday morning to attend the autism info session at Chase Oaks,  I now have the luxury of doing a little long-overdue Bible study.  This morning as I search the Gospels, I–like the women at the tomb– search in vain for the passage about Mary Magdalene and her encounter with the risen Lord.  It’s got to be in Luke (the most beautiful) or Matthew (the most thorough)—nope.  OK then what about Mark (the one I didn’t chart)—again nada.  John?  Could it possibly be in John, the most spartan of the gospels?  Yes.  For even though John was all business about everything else he waxed almost poetic with detail about Mary Magdalene’s encounter with our risen Savior.  I focus on one word he said to her:  Mary!  I remember waking up in my bedroom on Monticello to what appeared to be the sound of my own father’s voice simply saying my name, just like that:  Linda!  Oh what would I give for just one more hug, to smell that musty essence that was my Daddy-O.  For all the volumes written about Jesus he knows the sweetest sound is simply his name, spoken with tenderness.  With the same tender sweetness one day He will speak our names—My child!  Welcome Home.

Suffice to say before the Sacrifice of Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ our “relationship” with God was a bloody mess of sacrifice, rules and ritual.  But Praise God because He Lives we can have a Personal Relationship with Him and Enjoy Him Forever.  No Bulls Required!  Amen!

In His Accessible Grace,

Linda