“And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not; for I know that ye seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; for he is risen as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall ye see him; lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his disciples word.”

An Empty Bed

Nearly ten years have passed since my grandmother's death. Since she lived with my parents, our daughters saw Grammy Gill every time they visited their Grandma and Pappy. After being confined to her bedroom upstairs for months, she became sicker and weaker and was hospitalized two weeks before she died at the age of ninety. Accepting her death as an adult was hard for me; but explaining her death to our daughters, ages four and six, was even harder. They had been able to visit Grammy Gill upstairs in her bedroom and had even visited her briefly in the hospital. When I told them she had died, they wanted to go visit her in the hospital. They refused to believe me when I told them that she was in heaven with Jesus; her bed in the hospital was empty. So, on a cold, snowy March night, I bundled them warmly and drove them to the hospital. After checking with a nurse, we entered the room and saw that the bed was empty. They ran to the hallway and I knelt down and hugged them as the three of us cried softly.

On the way home, we talked about all the things Grammy Gill did to make us smile and laugh. The more we talked the more comfort we felt in our special memories that could never be taken away. We knew she had been in severe pain in her earthly body. Now, even though we would miss her voice, her touch, her smile and her laugh, we knew that she was no longer in pain. We began to feel good that everything special in Grammy Gill's spirit was now in heaven. We read, “Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs” by Tomie De Paola every night for weeks.

At Easter that year, I realized how we were like the women at the empty tomb. Jesus had risen from the dead! They had been fearful and surprised and then joyful at his victory over death! The earthly pain of crucifixion had been overcome by his resurrection! Praise God the tomb was empty and we no longer need to fear death if we trust in him.

His empty tomb= my joyful soul

JANET MENGLE