Day 5: A Burst of New Life
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” (Genesis 1:20)
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” (John 20:1-2)
On the fifth day of creation, there is a burst of life. Birds fill the sky. Fish flood the seas. What was once quiet and still suddenly moves with energy. The world is no longer dormant, but hums with life. There’s motion, sound, rhythm! Resurrection morning carries that same kind of energy.
Every Easter, I feel this unexpected surge of something electric in the air. The announcement that Jesus is alive, that death has been undone, that new life is possible changes everything. It reframes the day.
But for Mary Magdalene, it didn’t feel like celebration at first. It felt like confusion. She arrives at the tomb in the dark, carrying grief and instead finds the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. In John’s account, her first instinct isn’t resurrection. It’s loss. She runs to the disciples, convinced that someone has taken Jesus’ body because new life can be disorienting. Especially when you’ve grown used to the dark.
Resurrection doesn’t always announce itself the way we expect. Sometimes it startles us. Sometimes it feels like absence before it feels like hope. But even in her confusion, Mary is standing at the edge of something alive. A world beginning to move again and a story no longer quiet.
