“It’s too heavy,” he whined. His little hands strained to lift a fat rough log. He wanted to imitate his grandpa who seemed to hoist them like twigs into a wheelbarrow.
The red cheeks of a five-year-old, his desperate grunts, and unhappy face drew my husband over to help. Grandpa carried one end and together they lifted it onto a pile and into the loaded wheelbarrow. Together they rolled the heavy wood toward the house.
David said in Ps. 37:5, Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. (NKJV).
The word “commit” means “to roll off on to” to “roll away,” like children rolling logs down a hill and watching them pick up speed.
God moves the impossible.
Mary Magdalene and “the other” Mary had seen Jesus suffer agony and succumb to a tortuous death. They loved Jesus. The grief and horror of those events must have weighed heavily on their souls and troubled their minds.
Facing that dark tomb, the women watched Joseph lay the lifeless body of Jesus inside, and then roll a large stone against its gaping darkness.
The finality of that rolling stone would have been so very painful.
Early on the first day of the week, a somber group of women climbed the hill carrying spices to Christ’s tomb. The Jewish custom of anointing a body with fragrances was an act of respect and love. It had a practical purpose as well. It helped offset the smell of decay.
On the way, they remembered the giant stone.
They asked each other, Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us? But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. (Mark 16:3-4 NKJV).
The giant gravestone posed no impediment to either the women or to the One sealed behind it. The women stepped inside an empty tomb.
An older King David, in Psalm 37:5 looked back over his life. He saw how God had attended him in his struggles and how many things He had accomplished. During this year’s Easter preparation, David’s words encourage me to roll off my cares on to the CareTaker.
Commit it to Him. Trust Him to carry it. He will take care of it.
Sometimes I wonder how I will manage weights and cares I cannot move on my own. Sometimes I think things are too hard, too heavy, and I am too weary. But Jesus asks me to peer through the dark and roll those concerns onto Him. He invites me to look into an empty tomb from which a gigantic stone had been rolled away.
The greatness of Christ’s powerful triumph over death still moves in the smallest and biggest details of our lives. There is nothing either too big or too small for Him.
From my kitchen window, I watch the scene as grandpa and grandson push the heavy wheelbarrow of logs. They move forward with a little boy encircled inside arms of one who loves him and has the strength to move what for him alone is impossible.
And I find myself relaxing against my Heavenly Father. I don’t have to carry this burden alone. An empty tomb proves it.
He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. (Mark 16:6 NKJV)
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