Day 247: Just A Woman

John 20:1-18; 2 Chronicles 31; Psalm 87

Jesus rises from the dead! He shows himself to Mary first. I think this shows the Lord's heart, as well as Mary's. Mary wept for Jesus; she wept for his death and for those who would disturb his body. She stayed by the tomb alone shedding tears for her Lord. Jesus shows himself to her first, a woman, a woman who used to be a disgrace, but was saved by the grace of Jesus. Jesus could have shown himself to the Jewish leaders, to the Roman officials, or even to the male disciples first. Women were second-class citizens at this time. But he chooses this woman whose heart is tender and broken, and he calls her by name. I love our God!

Hezekiah "was a successful king, because he obeyed The Lord God with all his heart." Awesome. These last few chapters about the rule and decisions made by Hezekiah are so encouraging. Not only does he quickly make changes to the temple and kingdom, but the people follow his example and immediately destroy the altars and shrines to other gods. They then quickly offer a tenth of all that they own to God at the temple, providing more than enough for the priests to make the sacrifices and provide for everything. They thanked The Lord for all the things that he was doing for them. And even the families of the priest, the wives and children remain faithful to The Lord because of the example of their husbands. Gosh, that is so amazing! And it all started with a man who immediately obeyed The Lord. Hezekiah didn't wait until he had things figured out, he just knew they needed to focus on The Lord and he took action to do so. A lot of times we sit around and say, "I need to do this," or "I should really do that," but that is as far as it goes. Hezekiah is an amazing example of a man who knew that he needed to do something and he just did it, and God blessed the entire kingdom for it; everyone was changed and praised The Lord.

God loves the city of Zion and God loves it more than anywhere else; everyone wants to say that they are from Zion. What? This psalm seems really weird, but I think there is a point. The first line says Zion was built by The Lord, it is his city, his kingdom. Perhaps it is a real, physical city, but it also represents God's reign and rule. Everyone who loves The Lord wants to say that they belong to him and they from God's kingdom. That's the point, that we want to be identified with God's family and his establishment.