Believing is Seeing

 "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." Luke 24:34

    Easter is approaching. I can tell by the pastel proliferation of bunnies and eggs at Home Goods, among other places. Have you ever asked yourself what lies beneath the cutesy accoutrements of this spring season? If we peer through the smoke screen with which Satan has obscured the truth, what will we find? 

    An empty tomb. Jesus lives and Satan doesn't want you to know that! Otherwise, you would live in victory. 

    How do I know that Jesus lives if I wasn't there to see it for myself? I have proof. Just as in the verse above, I can declare, "It is true! The Lord has risen." Here's how I know:

    Dementia shrouded my father's mind during the last year and a half of his life. Anyone who has witnessed the slow decline caused by this disease can testify to the sadness and frustration involved. It was especially cruel for my mom whose husband did not know her after sixty-two years of marriage. The mental limitations combined with the physical ailments took their toll and, toward the end, my dad was admitted to a nursing home.

    One Sunday afternoon, my sisters called me from there. "Rachel, you need to come down here (to the nursing home)," they implored. "We are here with mom." 

    Fearing the worst, I went with some measure of trepidation. But do you know what happened? The same Jesus, who rebuked the raging sea for the disciples, calmed the storm of dementia for a few hours that afternoon. My father, so fine and so brave, was back as he used to be!  Just as if he had returned from a long trip, we were excited to speak with him. When I hugged him, he told me one of his favorite corny jokes which was, "A woman should be an armful, never a handful." 

    When our joyous reunion ended, the cloud of confusion returned. Three days later, Jesus called him home. 

    As the hymn goes, "I know that my Redeemer lives; What comfort this sweet sentence gives." Who but the One who has been given all authority in heaven and earth, could perform such a feat? But a Savior who has authority over life and death, who loves me so much that He would grant me one last time with my father, this is my Jesus, my Redeemer who lives. And I am a witness.

"God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses." Acts 2:32