It's Empty

I'm sitting here staring at my screen trying to articulate my thoughts, but I find that I have no words to express the feelings that well up in me at this Easter season. At least nothing I can briefly share. This is a day that fills me with with so many emotions - wonder, awe, gratitude, an overwhelming love... plus, a little bit of something else - a longing to understand things that lay beyond my ability to comprehend. I need to learn and grow a great deal more before I can truly begin to shape articulate thoughts from this swirling mass of emotions and half formed ideas.

So instead, today I will use the words of others. The words of Men who have gained a greater understanding of the significance of this day.

"But no force beneath the heavens could now hold back the power of the Son of God. It was as if His Almighty Father could stand no more. The earth trembled. The guards fled. The stone was moved. The Lord of heaven and earth arose from the bier, shook off the burial clothes, and stepped forth to become the first fruits of them that slept. The empty tomb bore testimony of this greatest of all miracles. With the appearance of the risen Lord first to Mary and then to many others, even to upwards of five hundred, came the undeniable testimony of His everlasting power over life and death."

Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Empty Tomb Bore Testimony”

"As the Only Begotten Son of the Father in the flesh, Jesus inherited divine attributes. He was the only person ever born into mortality who could perform this most significant and supernal act. As the only sinless Man who ever lived on this earth, He was not subject to spiritual death. Because of His godhood, He also possessed power over physical death. Thus He did for us what we cannot do for ourselves."

James E. Faust, "The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope"

"Each of us will have our own Fridays--those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death--Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or in the next, Sunday will come.

I testify to you that the Resurrection is not a fable. We have the personal testimonies of those who saw Him. Thousands in the Old and New Worlds witnessed the risen Savior. They felt the wounds in His hands, feet, and side. They shed tears of unrestrained joy as they embraced Him."

Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Sunday Will Come"

I once heard the story of a boy who visited the Garden Tomb. Upon looking inside, he turned to his grandfather with a look of confusion, "What's the big deal?" he asked, "It's empty."

In reply, his grandfather turned to him, "I know. That's the point."