Sometimes my heart aches for resurrection. It ached this week.
On Wednesday I talked with a former member and Elder, Don Personius. His daughter said he was at the end of life, so I wanted to touch base. We had a lovely conversation. He is mobile and surrounded by family. His hearing is not great. I didn’t get any information on what was going on medically, but he was alert and knew me. But I could hear the toll nine decades puts on the human body.
I hated what sin has done to our world.
And then on Thursday morning I was out with our golden retriever (Lady) on our usual walk. The path of our journey never varies. Same route on every walk. But on Thursday we encountered an adorable young man in his driveway. Obviously, he was about to go to school. And he loved to talk and pet Lady. He was probably about 7 or so. And very precocious.
The information I gleaned in a couple of minutes was amazing. Dad has just bought a brand-new SUV, it was parked on the street next to where I was standing. The old family car was in the driveway, and Dad wants to sell it. His uncle has a golden retriever, and they put tape in the hall so that when guests arrived, the dog would stay behind the tape and not overwhelm guests on their arrival. Eventually they removed the tape, and the dog still stayed back. I said that’s a great idea, and I should have done that with my dog.
I kept glancing toward the house to see if someone would come check out this unlikely pair on the sidewalk. I was a bit hidden by another car, but finally Dad peered over the top of that car to see if his son was done with breakfast. He was. Of course he was…there was a cute dog to pet. I decided it was wise to end this conversation and move on. As I did, the boy shouted to dad, “This dog is so cute, can we get a dog?” Uh oh.
As I walked, I felt uneasy. My heart was sad. Perhaps this amazing young man was going to get a lecture about talking to strangers (though maybe they had seen me walk by the house many times before).
I hated what men have let sin do to their lives.
And in that moment, I longed for redemption. Reverse the curse on the human body. Remove the curse on the human heart. Where does that begin? The story of transformation begins at the empty tomb, the place of victory. He is risen. He is risen, indeed.