The Empty Grave (birds and bandwagons part 2)

We're coming up quickly on Holy Week...Easter is a little more than a week away. In light of this fact, I'd like to share a continuation of my previous post (birds and bandwagons). As I mentioned below, I came upon a little injured bird that we took care of until it died the other day. It's body was stiff, and the little tuff on it's head was all fluffed out. I buried it in our backyard. I made quite a to do about it so that my daughter and her cousin could find a little closure in the event. After digging a hole and burying the bird, I constructed a tiny cross out of bamboo and vine that I stuck in the ground just behind the grave. Then I piled rocks on the spot where I buried it. The kids handled it well, especially after seeing the little grave and saying a prayer by it. The next morning before school, they wanted to see the grave again, so I agreed to take them out right before it was time to leave. As I approached I observed the site and cringed. There was a hole where the rocks had been, and the bird was gone. My daughter immediately pinned it on a racoon, and her cousin simply resigned to the fact that "it was his time to go." My mind was moving more in the direction of my daughter's suggestion, but I figured it was more than likely one of the cats.

I must admit that the sight disturbed me. I mean graves are somewhat sacred, or at least taboo.. even the grave of a bird. All I wanted to know was who or what desecrated this site. Kind of silly, I know, but it got me thinking about the following portion of scripture:

"Early on the first day of the week while it was still dark, Mary Magdelene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running...and said 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him'
... but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look in the tomb and saw two angels in white, seatedwhere Jesus' body had been
... They asked her, 'Woman why are you crying?' 'They have taken my Lord away,' she said, 'and I don't know where they have put him.' At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus
...'Woman', he said, 'why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?' Thinking he was the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him.' Jesus said to her, 'Mary.'

I've always wondered what took Mary so long to get it. I mean angels are there, Jesus himself even shows up, and she's still asking about the body! What's up with that? I've often wondered. Don't you understand? He's alive. But this experience with the bird has given me new sympathy for the poor lady. I mean once you see something or someone dead, the finality of it sticks to your brain. She saw him dead, and so to her, an empty grave had to mean robbers, theives, or gardeners.

To me it meant racoons, cats, or some other critter. And doubtless, if birds return to their maker, resurrection has been delayed for our little friend, and his body was consumed much quicker than I had intended. But hope springs from empty bird graves marked by crosses and invaded by critters nonetheless. Because though consumption comes to all, the cross and the empty grave give evidence that there was one who couldn't be consumed, even by death and decay. A missing dead bird, a small empty hole and two sticks tied together were reminders to me that death has been defeated, and restoration awaits this earth and resurrection God's people