The Center of Existence

When the disciples woke up on the Monday after the Resurrection, did they think they’d had a wild dream or did they wake up knowing that everything had changed? 

When the disciples thought the women were telling “idle tales” did Mary start to wonder herself? 
Did the sound of hearing Jesus saying her name in the garden echo in her head and heart for days… for her lifetime?

Jesus ushered in a new beginning and we all get to choose how to live into it. We live in the world where nothing is impossible now. How will we live? 

This week in her article for Christianity Today, Tish Harrison Warren quoted Flannery O’Connor talking about the eucharist, applying it to the resurrection.   

I then said, in a very shaky voice, 'Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it.' That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable."

It is the center of existence for me. 

I can’t stop thinking about how the resurrection is not just a historical event but the beginning of a new world where resurrection life is the center of existence. In a world where resurrection is the center of it all, family is redefined, the law is the way of love, and freedom reigns. 

Paul says, “For I have decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

It’s a good time to resolve in our hearts to live into the new world, the Kingdom of God, where everything is being made new. 

May you hear the echo of every moment where Jesus has said your name and know in the very fabric of your being that Jesus changes everything.