Suddenly Caroline bursts forth on a totally new tangent. “Cece,”
she says, “the bad men nailed Jesus up on the cross. And then he
died and they put him in the grave. And then Mary went to look for
him at the grave but when she got there he was gone. So she saw this
guy and she thought he was the gardener and she said, ‘Where did
you put him?’ And he said her name—‘Mary.’ And she turned
around and looked and she saw it wasn’t the gardener. It was Jesus.
And he was alive again!”
There it all was! In a nutshell! In a handful of one- and two-sylla-
ble words Caroline had summed up the mysteries of the universe.
What an awesome God we serve—a God who has put together a
plan capable of awing toddlers and amazing adults who will come
with childlike hearts. What a far-flung yet close-knit family we are,
a family of struggling saints and forgiven sinners who all find level
ground at the foot of the cross.
If you are willing to see yourself as part of the great patchwork
quilt of the body of Christ, you will recognize yourself in Caroline’s
gospel story. You’ll be there with Mary at the empty tomb, acknowl-
edging the amazing truth that our Savior is resurrected. He has risen!
He’s alive!
O Lord God, thank you for your wonderful plan: huge enough to in-
corporate all creation, intricate enough to take every cell of our be-
ings into account, vast enough to explain suns and moons and solar
systems, yet personal enough to call us forth by name as your own
children. Never let us cease to be amazed. Amen.101 MOST POWERFUL PRAYERS IN THE BI BLE 135