Monday Devotional: April 11, 2022

Scripture: Luke 24:1-12

A sanctuary is a place where we meet God. But it is not only in churches that we encounter God. It is sometimes a place like an empty tomb that we vividly experience the grace of God. When the women walked to the tomb to tend Jesus’ body at dawn, they were going back to a place of grief, trauma, and hopelessness. As they tried to tend Jesus’ wounded and lifeless corpse, they perhaps wanted to tend their own wounded hearts, grieving their loved one.

No one wants to enter a tomb. Certainly no one wants to re-enter a tomb. But when the women took the courage and faith to visit the tomb, it became a sanctuary where even their wounds were affirmed and embraced. In this empty tomb where they sought to honor their loved one and begin healing their torn hearts, they experienced God’s transforming grace calling them to become the first evangelists. It is quite often in the empty places in our lives that we find God’s restoration.

What are the lifeless and hopeless “empty tombs” in your life? No matter where we are, may we find God’s undeniable grace, restoration, and hope of resurrection and life eternal.

Prayer

God, empower me to courageously enter the empty tombs in my life knowing that I can encounter your presence and be affirmed in your grace, I can freely search for answers and be transformed by your hands, I can let go and empty myself from what lies behind me to be restored and redeemed by your love. Amen.

By Danielle Buwon Kim, The Sanctuary for Lent 2022