little more than wishful, albeit con- templative, thinking. Hope becomes nothing more than an imaginary anti- dote for reality.


But then I think of the real Laza- rus and picture him stumbling out from the dimly lit tomb—his hand shielding the sunlight from his newly reopened eyes, his mummy-like graveclothes trailing in tatters behind him (John 11:1-45). I can only imag- ine his surprise at the chance for life again. It was totally out of his realm of understanding that he, who once was dead, now lived. We aren’t given any information about what happened to Lazarus after his resurrection. I wonder if he always carried a musty stench about him. Did he become an inspirational speaker? Did he live in undying (pun intended) devotion to his sisters who prayed for him and who chided Jesus for being slow in returning to Beth- any to heal him in the first place? We simply don’t know. I’ve begun to think that what is important about Lazarus’ story—and ours too—is that after being dead (I presume his faith died with him), he got up and stumbled out of the grave to live again. Despite his tattered clothes, his eyes blinded by the light, his stench, his confusion, his shock, he stumbled out to live once again. And we, too, our hearts broken, our spirits stumbling, our bodies and minds experiencing a million different realms of pain, are raised by Christ to try again. Despite the stinking mess of our lives, God’s light, however dim we perceive it to be, still shines for us. Often, after experiencing compounding misery, we don’t know how we will ever live again. But somehow we do. Our baptism into Christ makes us new creations—we who once were dead. We fall down, we get up. Sometimes not knowing the rest of the story is enough. M


February 2011 35


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52