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It Is Finished

Something was definitely wrong!  I looked around finding only open space and emptiness.  The in-store Post Office was blackened.  All the shelves seemed mostly empty.  The usual full array of orchids was down to just 4 small plants.  What was going on?  I asked a nearby grocery worker who told me that the store was closing in a few more days.  It would be moving from our neighborhood into Orange County.

Ugh. . .  I felt my heart sink with the reality I was beholding with my own eyes.  One of my favorite stores, this Korean market, in which I weekly got my fresh produce from, along with wild fish, and various other items.  I loved the orchids that were routinely stocked and had purchased many for gifts, as well as for myself over the past few years.  Here we go again, with change and loss. . . two things that I am not dealing with quite well. . .  

Yes, today is resurrection Sunday and I do rejoice in the fact that the God I serve is alive! Yes, He has brought hope into the suffering in life.  Yes, He has conquered the final sting of life which is death.  Jesus finished the job He was sent to do.  He never detoured from the plan of the cross, even though He was tempted to do so.  Because of His faithfulness, these 2000+ years after, I have hope.  It is finished!

But, I find so many unfinished things around me.  I have unfinished business in my life.  There seems to be more leaks in the dike, more loose strings, unsolved whys and how comes.  I tend to take them all very personal, even the store closing left me feeling personally assaulted.  Here's just one more thing to bring me sorrow.


Why?  I think it must be the illusion of life.  I want to have problems solved with meaningful answers.  I think I lack the patience and endurance that is needed at times to see things through.  I'm looking for success instead of failure.  I am looking for an easier journey through life, and ironically the path is getting steeper.  But that is all the more reason to embrace the words of Jesus, "It is finished."

I can't finish the stuff of life.  I can't even understand it or reason with it.  So many things don't  make sense, especially when it comes to outcomes.  Most of life, if not all of it, is beyond my control.  I can't fix it or even play it back to try again.  I don't know if I will be able to take the next breath or write the next few words.  Why do I carry the burden of "unfinished business?"  It only weighs my spirit down.  Perhaps, I need to mean the song I sing, "I'm trading my sorrows, I'm trading my pain, . . . for the joy of the Lord. . . "

That is why today is celebrated!  From the darkness and despair of death itself, Jesus was raised to give us eternal hope.  But that hope begins now, right into the midst of my life with all its unfinished stuff.  He has proclaimed "It is finished," all I must do is accept that fact and give up trying to finish what He's already done. . . Mary, "It is finished!" 

"O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."  (I Corinthians 15: 56-57)




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