Empty

No one likes for things to be empty. If your pantry is empty, you have to go buy food; if your gas tank is empty, you have to go buy gas. Refrigerators. Shampoo bottles. Toothpaste. Mail box. Stapler. Copy machine. Wallet. Laundry detergent. All inconvenient or depressing when empty, as are so many other things.

But what about an empty tomb?

Not an empty tomb waiting for a funeral to finish and then be filled. A tomb that was occupied for a few days and then, to the amazement and bewilderment of the people who made the discovery, is suddenly empty. Certainly not inconvenient or depressing. What word to use? How do you describe the emotion when you know that the man who was buried in the tomb after dying for your mistakes is no longer there because He is alive? That because He is alive, instead of standing in the shadows of your mistakes and bound to a world gone insane, you are standing in grace and freedom from the world in reconciliation with the God who made the world?

Overwhelming, indescribable, immeasurable joy. That's how I describe the empty tomb.

Happy Easter.