He calls our name

In the quiet of the morning Mary Magdalene waited.
Her heart broken in bits and pieces, sorrow swelled so heavy in her spirit she wasn’t sure if she could breathe as she was remembering him and all the times they had spent together.
We are never prepared to let a loved one go.
She wept with a deep hallowed out sorrow.
She came to the tomb and realized that the stone was rolled away and the body was gone.
One can only imagine her fears, desperation and questions.
Have you ever lost a good friend?
It is a shocking that is so deep and your pain is so intense you want to numb it away.
I have never watched anyone die a horrific death.
We have sat beside hospice patients who quietly passed away in the final moments.
It was mostly the process of letting go… as each breath leaves and it was peaceful.
This death, the death on a cross was far from peaceful.
In John 20:11
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in.
She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
She turned to leave and saw someone standing there.
It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him.
“Dear woman, why are you crying? Jesus asked her. 
“Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir” she said,”if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
“Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Raboni”(which is Hebrew for “Teacher”)
“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them. ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them,
“I have seen the Lord!”
Then she gave them his message.
It gives me GREAT hope to know he calls us by our name.
That is intimate and personal. 
When he said “Mary” she immediately clung to a new found HOPE.
Our God is a God of Hope as the resurrection story continues.