SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE:

If they had not been on their way to a funeral, Easter would have gone unnoticed by human eyes. Easter itself would have gone uncelebrated or unheralded. The rocks, trees, stars, winds and even all creatures in the garden joined their songs and voices in praise. It was not a Sunday but the the Sunday.

The women rose in the darkness. They woke up long before dawn to visit the grave of Jesus. They didn’t weep quietly for what should never have been. They didn’t go to visit the spot of his death just to light a candle and leave a vase of flowers on the place where he died. They went to prepare his body for the afterlife. They were going to clean his body with their tears.

When they arrived, it was past dawn. Easter was in full swing. If they had listened, they might have still heard the hymn of the rocks and the aria of the wind and the symphony of the universe. But I suspect they could not have heard because of what they had seen. The door to the tomb was rolled open. The grave was empty. There was no body.

They were greeted by a young, well-dressed man. He looked like an angel; perhaps he was one. At the least, he was an Easter witness.

“Jesus is not here,” he said. “He is risen. But he left me a message to give you. He has gone ahead of you. He will meet you back home in Galilee.”

You don’t have to go Yosemite to find God. You don’t have to go on a spiritual retreat to find God. You don’t have to become a church person to discover God. You don’t even have to be good to find God.

God is already with you. God is for you. And God will meet you where you live: at your work, or in the employment line, on the freeway or at a funeral. Listen for the rocks singing. Look for the angels who have come to meet you. Look around where you live. No matter what time it is, it’s Easter time. Jesus is alive and well and already there.

MARK WILEY is the pastor of Mesa Verde United Methodist Church in Costa Mesa.