Paying Attention
Experiencing Resurrection: Part 3
April 26, 2026
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabbouni” (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold on to me, for I haven’t yet gone up to my Father. Go to my brothers and sisters and tell them, ‘I’m going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
~ John 20:15-17
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I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses… and he walks with me, and he talks with me,
and he tells me I am his own…
That sweet, beautiful garden. The quiet. The voice.
That wondrous morning began as a day of sorrow, a day of sadness. As I walked to the tomb, my heart was heavy.
I walked slowly, under the cover of darkness. My sandals crunched softly on the gravel path. All else was eerily quiet. The birds had not yet awakened. The sound of the crickets was fading as dawn approached.
I wrapped my cloak more tightly to block out the chill, and I could feel the dew on my feet as I stepped through the patches of grass near the tomb.
When I arrived, the stone had been moved. The tomb was wide open.
I felt it in the pit of my stomach. Something was wrong.
I ran back to the disciples. “You’re not going to believe this. The stone is gone!”
Peter said he wouldn’t believe it until he saw it. He and another disciple ran to the tomb. When they arrived, they looked in and saw the same thing I had.
I couldn’t leave. I needed to know where he was. So I stayed and wept. I didn’t understand. The uncertainty was unbearable.
“Why are you crying?” he asked.
“They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know wherethey’ve put him.”
I turned to follow their gaze. There was a man standing there. I assumed he was the gardener.
“Woman,” he said, “why are you weeping?”
“I just want to see Jesus.”
Instead, he offered only a single word… “Mary.”
That’s all it took. Just that one word.
He knew me. He saw me. I was no longer alone.
In that instant, everything changed. The grief, the confusion, the aching emptiness… all of it went away.
He didn’t rise with loud thunder or angels singing from the skies. He came with a quiet, comforting whisper… a voice I knew so well… “Mary.”
Before Jesus, my life was wrapped in darkness. I was tormented by darkness that would not let me go. People avoided me. I was feared, shunned, cast aside. He stepped into my life, right where I was, and cast out every demon with the light of love. He made me new. He is still making me new. And he sent me to share it with everyone.
But in that moment, I was there. I showed up. I stayed. But love would not let me hide. And because I was there, he once again led me into joy. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.
This week’s reflection is an excerpt from my new book, Real Life Resurrection.
For more information, purchase links and study guides, click here.
