On February 22, several years ago, news was released from Portland, Oregon that there had been a terrible accident! Apparently, as their mother lay dead in middle of night, four year old Aryanna dragged her seriously injured little sister, Lylah, about 20 feet from the crashed car. The two girls huddled under a blanket and waited. The car was stuck deep in woods; there were no skid marks on highway; the crash site was almost impossible to detect. The girls waited hours for help.
Two commercial fishermen, Kraig McClure and Scott Beutler, were driving along State Highway 401 between Astoria, Oregon, and Naselle, Washington. In the distance what appeared to be a basketball-sized gash in an alder tree made them slow down—they had a gut feeling something was wrong. “I don’t know exactly what told us to turn around, but I’m just really thankful we did,” McClure said. They spotted the wrecked car a few hundred feet from the road. Nearby were two very scared, confused little girls. Mother was dead. The state trooper who responded to the 911 said keeping warm under the blanket was vital.
What if Aryanna had not helped her little sister out? What if those fishermen had not acted on their hunch? What if they had not called 911? What if… There are so many “what ifs” in our lives!
There is another “What if?” What if:
· God had given up on us and not come into the world through Jesus to show us how to live in God’s Kingdom on earth
· God had not included an empty tomb in his plan
· No one had shared the resurrection story?
Read the Easter story found in Mark 16. Then consider the “What if?”
· The women had decided to skip the anointing because of its interference with Sabbath, had said, “It’s too late now” on that Sunday morning, and never showed up?
· God had not “so loved the world that he gave his only Son?”
· We do not tell the story or live as though it’s true but simply dismiss it as unimportant?
· We had never heard the story? Never knew resurrection? Never had resurrection hope?
WHAT IF? What we must decide today is, NOW WHAT?
Prayer: Thanks be to You, O God! Jesus is risen, we have heard the story, and Jesus is going before us--always! Praise God we know the “Now What?” Amen.
Song: “Christ Is Alive! Let Christians Sing” ELW 389
Tyger Penson 4-5-15