Resurrection Stories

Things have been quiet here on the blog.

Instead of writing stories I’ve been living stories and soaking them all in.

But I miss the steady tapping on the keyboard and the rhythm of giving the thoughts in my head a place to go. My notebooks and iPhone are getting full of half-written insights that I’m longing to form into a coherent chain of words.

And so I sit down again.  

I prayed hard about maybe just shutting this blog down.  It seems crowded out here in cyberspace and my voice seems shaky.  But one day I read through a couple years of posts and the doodles in my notebook. And a still-small voice said “no”.

So I’ll start here, again, a few words at a time. I’ll start in a whisper in this place that feels like home.

As I thought about coming back to this space  I didn’t want to do it alone.  I love the idea of an table and story-swapping.  I glanced around at my friends and shot out a FB message that I was considering doing a “Resurrection” series and asked if anyone would like to share some words on the blog.

And some friends responded. So here we are.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll post a few stories from brave women who have entrusted them to me, and to you. We’re always braver together, yes?

Why a Resurrection Story series?

Because maybe I’m not supposed to have a favorite story from the bible, but I do.  It’s Resurrection Day when Jesus meets Mary.

I love Mary and I love how Jesus trusts a broken woman with his story.  I love that Mary heads straight to the tomb when all hope seems lost.  She knows just where to look.  She has hope when maybe no one else does.

And Jesus not only meets her, he commissions her.

“When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.” Mark 16:9

Mary was a woman who had been healed of what haunted her seven times over.

I’m thinking this was not an accident.

Maybe when Jesus told her to go He knew she would be His greatest messenger and the greatest testimony. Mary gives me hope just like the roses that are blooming outside my kitchen window now. The fresh, sweet hope found after the resurrection.

Here is basically how it goes in John 20:15: Jesus’ first set of words on the other side of the grave: In summary: Why are you crying?
1. Why are you crying?  2. It’s me.  3. Don’t stay here.  Go tell the others.

He commissions her. A broken woman who has been healed and can tell a story.

Maybe the story of Mary teaches us that more than anything else that Jesus needs girls with scars to tell the Resurrection Story. To tell of life conquering death and sins being cast as far as the East is from the West, to tell of grace, and to tell others that they are beloved.

So let’s do just that.  Let’s swap stories of hope.

**I’ll be posting a few pieces over the next couple of weeks from women who have joined this little circle.  I hope you’ll follow along.

~Amy (Beloved in Blue Jeans)