When they awoke on that Sunday morning they weren't expecting much. All of their hopes and dreams had died on the Friday before, so they had nothing left to look forward to. There was really nothing left in the world which they cared about and they saw no reason to believe anything would change anytime soon. They went through the motions of getting up and getting ready for the day, but their hearts simply weren't in it. Their world had come to an end in the same moment that he had breathed his final breath. Why should they want to go on? They stepped out of their houses into the cool morning air and found themselves wondering how they were supposed to make it through another day, let alone the rest of their lives.

The remarkable thing about the story of Mary and the women who went with her to the tomb is that nothing was as they perceived it to be. They experienced the world and their lives as hopeless and filled with despair because they did not expect it to be otherwise. They didn't notice that they had stepped into God's new day, because they weren't looking for anything new. But in spite of what they expected -- in spite of the hopelessness they were experiencing -- the reality of what was happening in their world was dramatically different. You see, God's power had not been stopped by the cross and God's love had not been silenced by the tomb. Death was not the final word. But their lives continued to be defined by despair because they didn't know to look for anything else. And so it was that the empty tomb took them by surprise. The angels took them by surprise. Everything about their experience that morning took them by surprise. They weren't able to comprehend the truth of what they were seeing because it did not fit with how they perceived the world. From the moment they awoke that morning they had been moving into God's new day, but they weren't able to enjoy it because it was so different from what they expected to find. Only later, when they encountered the risen Christ first hand were they finally able to open themselves to the truth of what God was doing all around them. Only then did they realize that the Son had, indeed, risen on a bright new day and a bold new future.

How often are we like those women? God's resurrection power was not contained in one event 2,000 years ago. God is at work bringing new life to our lives and our world in every moment of every day. But we often have as much trouble seeing it as did those who first went to the empty tomb. We become so preoccupied with our own pain or grief or problems that we forget to even look for the possibilities of new life. I understand that one of the principles at work behind a magician's illusions is that we see what we expect to see. Unfortunately, that also holds true in reverse. We fail to see what we do not expect to see.

But the good news for us, as it was for Mary and the other women on that first Easter morning, is that God is calling us to move with open eyes into God's new day. On this day of resurrection may we expect the unexpected. May we expect to find new life.