First Reaction...Bad News

Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and I don't know where they have put him!" -- John 20 (NLT)



As I was getting ready for bed, I grabbed my bible and flipped it open. It landed on John 20 and God dropped a really interesting thought on me. Here we find a distraught Mary Magdalene reacting to a situation and delivering bad news to two of the disciples. Her first reaction to seeing the stone rolled away was bad news.

Now although the scripture doesn't mention this fact, we know that Mary didn't immediately remember Christs words about resurrection. She didn't remember the prophecies of the Messiah being crucified and rising again. She saw the situation and immediately thought the worst..."Someone stole his body!" She was so wrapped up in what she believed to be the worst-case scenario that she didn't even see the fact that she was the first to uncover the absolute greatest miracle ever.

We as humans have a terrible tendency to imagine the worst when we are faced with a situation. Mark Twain might have put it best when he said "I've dealt with many crisis in my life, but few of them will ever happen." Our imaginations can run away with our emotions and cause us to lose hope and faith. Sometimes, what appears to be a dire situation is actually the beginning of a miracle much larger than we could ever imagine. Next time you are faced with difficulty or on the surface it appears that the situation has turned very ugly, stop and pray and ask God to show you what you are missing. You just might see that your dark situation or storm is actually the hand of God moving situations or moving you to a place of blessing.

Cheers and God bless!

Hoss