She is Not Here!

As a business traveler, I have logged many thousands of miles each year. Many of my travels have brought me close to family members where I could visit and catch up on old times. It was my fate to be very far from my mother when she had her heart attack, as I was giving a seminar in California. After a shortened session and an overnight flight, I sat by her hospital bed as she lay in a coma, singing to her with my guitar. She never regained her memory of me or other family members. I was in Salt Lake City when she died several months later, again far from her side. Another overnight flight and I was helping to plan her funeral.

I made a practice of visiting her grave whenever my travels brought me near any of the DC airports. It was Easter Sunday as I stood by her grave. The voice of scripture echoed through my head: “Why do you search for the living among the dead? She is not here! She is risen!”

Of course! She is risen! She lives in my thoughts and memories. She lives in me as Jesus lives in me. I have known that since she died, but it never became a reality until that moment.

I have passed by the place where her earthly remains are buried many times, but I have not felt the need to visit her grave again. We have to accept the promise God has made in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we are saved by His death, and that we are given the gift of eternal life.

— Myron Hanke