AWE
‘Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples.’
I am struck today at how this text conveys a mix of emotions as it couples ‘awe and great joy’. Throughout the story of our salvation we meet those who have come close to the holiness of God and have experienced awe. There are dramatic moments on mountain tops, but also quiet moments when prayer has been answered.
The women have been reassured by an angel that that there is no need for them to be afraid. Jesus has risen as he said he would. I imagine this news filling every fibre of their being. This a powerful moment of transformation—from sorrow to joy, from doubt to belief. The women, who had come to the tomb expecting to mourn, instead encountered the miraculous: an empty grave, a risen Saviour.
Moments of awe are part of our own faith journey’s too. The work of the Alistair Hardy Trust has shown that 75% of people claim to have had some form of spiritual experience, often in childhood and often related to nature. There’s something about the nature of childhood that makes us open to these moments of awe, these touches of God.
Has anything over the past few months filled you with awe and great joy ?
(Matt 28:8-15, Easter Monday)