By Katy Mariotti

The Weary World Rejoices!

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see.””
Luke 24:38-39a English Standard Version

March has been a difficult month for many people I know, including myself. It has been a month of grief and illness. Even as I write this I have lost my voice when I am supposed to be singing at church services this Holy Week.

Our world turns in seasons and this has been a hard one in many ways. And yet when I walked by my front garden the other day, filled with pine needles and the dead branches of last year’s flowers, I felt it: a thrill of hope. Soon, I thought. Soon the green things will grow again. And it was a hope I could count on because I have no doubt that the season will change, and green things will grow. It’s part of life. Sure enough, when I wandered outside later on a slightly warmer day, I began to clear out the dead things and I discovered green shoots already coming up.

I know the line “A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices” comes from a Christmas song, but on this Easter Sunday, I am thankful for seasons, and I feel that thrill of hope that our weary world can rejoice. Jesus is living! He spoke to His disciples and asked them to touch His hands and His side to prove that it was REALLY him. We can count on our risen Lord even more than we can count on spring to come again. We can count on the fact that our grief and illness will pass, because God has promised it.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17

We have a God who loves us, who sent His son to die and who rose again! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado