My youngest daughter and I were walking through a store a few weeks before Easter. "Look at all this stuff," she said. "Nothing but candy and bunnies. I'll bet there's not a tomb for sale anywhere in this store."

I thought it was interesting that she mentioned a tomb rather than a cross or a lily as a symbol of Easter. She may have hit on something I often rush past in my haste to celebrate the resurrection. Jesus was placed in a tomb, and in the minds of those closest to Him that was where He was going to stay.

In Luke 23 and 24, note how many times the body of Jesus and the tomb are mentioned. On that first Easter morning, the women came to a grave to anoint a corpse with spices for proper burial. In the deep sorrow of that awful finality, they were stunned by news that seemed too amazing to be true: "He is not here, but is risen!" (Lk. 24:6).

Our own sorrows and shattered dreams that seem so final have been changed forever by Jesus' empty grave. It shouts of the victory He won over sin and death, and of the living hope we have in Him.

The great event of Easter is only part of the story. Its full significance comes when we first pause at the tomb.  — David C. McCasland