Mary, why are you weeping?

Mary Magdalen was the first one to see the risen Christ, except maybe His mother.  How devoted was Mary!  The deciples are sitting in a room with door locked but Mary is at the tomb, crying.  She doesn't understand Gods will, she thinks that not only have they crucified the Beloved but now they have stolen His body.  She goes from following the Teacher and having so much meaning in her life to having it all taken away, or so she thinks.

The reality of the situation is so completely different, but she doesn't know, only God knows.  She thinks that she has lost everything, but I reality she has gained eternal life.  She thinks she has lost the Beloved, but in reality, He will never leave her again.  The angels ask her, Mary, why are you crying?  They know the will of God, and there are clues for her to see, but in her sadness she can't see them.  It  isn't until she turns around and see the Lord that she has any idea that things aren't what she thought they were.  Even seeing the Lord she has no clue how good things really are.

How often does this happen in our lives?  We lose a job, a house, a loved one and we think the world has come to an end.  We become ill or get hurt and our life changes and curse our bad luck.  But we don't know God's will for us.  We don't know what He will accomplish through us because of "bad luck" in our lives.  I have had cancer and lost people in my life to suicide.  I had a miscarrage that devastated me.  I became an addict.  All of these things were tragedies but they made me who I am.  They lead me back to God eventually with a much deeper faith and a fuller life.  I still wish those things didn't happen for the most part, but I see they made me less self centered and more compassionate.  We, like Job, can not fathom what God had done and is doing.  We have to have faith that in the end we will see God and then we will know.