Day 7: Magdalene Rests in Resurrection
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2:2)
“Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.” (John 20:18)
When God rests on the seventh day, it doesn’t mean that he does nothing. It means that he is present in and with the work he has done.
Mary receives a commission from the risen Jesus in the garden. She is sent to carry the news of resurrection to the disciples; to step fully into the new life He has just brought into the world. In that calling, there is a kind of rest and participation.
When I painted this final piece, the largest of the series, I wanted to capture that moment of overflow. Mary bursting through the door, announcing: “I have seen the Lord.” The room she enters is still heavy with grief. Dark blues and cool tones linger, holding the weight of sorrow that filled the space just moments before. But she brings life and light into that room.
There’s a detail here that ties the whole journey together. In the first painting, Mary is surrounded by fragmented figures and shadows circling her, representing the torment she once lived under. But now, at the end of the cycle, everything has shifted.
She stands at the center, no longer surrounded by darkness, but stepping toward others who are. The disciples, still caught in confusion and fear, now mirror what she once was. Mary becomes the one who carries light to them.
Because she has walked the full path. That journey is embedded in the image itself by seven circles layered into the composition, marking each stage of transformation. Her story began in chaos ends in commission.
