Silencing the Tomb

“Set up road markers for yourself; establish signposts!  Keep the highway in mind, the way you have traveled…There is hope for your future…For the LORD creates something new in the land…Look, the days are coming.” Jeremiah 31:17-27

Yesterday was a glorious Easter day and our church didn’t fail to fulfill a wonderful celebration of the life of Jesus. It always amazes me how a fresh sermon on an old event can still move the hearts of people.  Most of us have heard the story of the crucifixion and resurrection for decades.  But yesterday the preacher mined a beautiful relic I had previously not considered.  He spoke of the things that the tomb tells us with my favorite being the following statement.   ‘What God has for our future will always be greater than anything we have had in the past.’  The empty tomb speaks of the ending of something, and the beginning of greater things.  The empty tomb tells us to look toward the future in hope because the past didn’t win! 

This morning it touched me that God led me to this passage.  It is so easy to look over the course of my losses allowing the tomb to taunt me.  The tomb tells me that death won in the battle between my loved ones and illness.  The tomb tells me that the dream I have tucked in my heart is still empty and void.  The tomb tells me that I’ve been robbed of certain blessings until I recall this:  Jesus has gone before me and has overcome the tomb!  Jesus has shown me repeatedly that the only stone rolled in front of the entrance is any unbelief.  He already has my path cleared and it is up to me to follow that path where hope prevails, and dreams are realized.  But, I must too remember this:  My Sunday is coming and so is yours!

 So, as I recall this beautiful hope for the future I will allow Jesus to be my road marker…my signpost.  I will keep the highway in mind of those things through which I have traveled…the beautiful joys along the path…the heartbreaking hurts of yesterday…and the faithful Light ahead of me that is making a new land in new days with a storehouse of blessings. 

Whatever you face today, keep the highway in mind and truly believe that what God has for your future is so much greater than the best day of your past.