Ardis Stenbakken – Loveland, Colorado … My mother lost a teenage son in a drowning accident. Very recently, one of my friends lost her adult son to a sudden and unexpected death. Mothers losing sons in death.
This weekend, I think of Jesus’ mother. She was probably still young, in her mid-to-late forties when she lost her son to death in a most cruel way. Oh, how she must have looked forward to the resurrection, having no idea how close it really was.
That resurrection story is important to all of us too, and women played an important part in it. While Christ’s male followers were hiding, and for probably good reason, the women went to the tomb. There they discovered glorious news. And they lost no time in sharing it. In fact, Ellen G. White says that Mary preached it:
Women can be the instruments of righteousness, rendering holy service. It was Mary that first preached a risen Jesus … If there were twenty women where now there is one, who would make this holy mission their cherished work, we should see many more converted to the truth (Review and Herald, Jan. 2, 1879).
Although the men did not want to believe it, the facts were there: the women were right. Now it is our turn to believe and share. The facts are still there for us, men or women. Christ’s resurrection is a fact. Now we too look for a resurrection at Christ’s Second Coming. All of us need to preach it, need to share it, because there’s a world waiting to hear that there will soon be an end to any of us losing children or any other loved one. Glorious news!
It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles (Luke 24:10, NKJV).
—Ardis Stenbakken, a former Women’s Ministry director of the General Conference, is the Campion Adventist Church communication director and is involved with Women’s and Family Ministries. Photo by AdobeStock.
