What's the Message?

There is that saying, "don't kill the messenger", and while many times we may not "kill" the messenger we choose to not believe him. My children have very strong wills. If you ask me why I will tell you that it is because they get it from their mother. If you ask their mother she will tell you that they get that trait from me. One of my boys is particularly stubborn. I can sit with him and explain to him how something works, but if he has already made up his mind how he wants it to work then he will try and try until it works the way he wants and ignore me entirely during the process. There have even been times when I have had him take a break and I will show him how easily it woks the correct way, and when he recommits to his work he will go back to doing it his way. Many in life treat God the same way. No matter how many parables, examples and messengers God sends some just refuse to believe. Why? I haven't a clue sometimes. I know that for myself I spent a number of years trying to seemingly ice skate uphill. I had grown up going to church with good role models, and for many adult years I stayed on the correct path, but because I stopped going to church each week I slowly over time strayed farther from the path as I became more unfamiliar and disconnected from God and my faith. My life was completely falling apart and to many bystanders it was clear why, but to me it was oblivious. God sent messengers, one after another I ignored. I didn't kill the messenger but I sure did kill the messages. I can't tell you what brought me back. My life had gotten so out of control that I had no place to go. I had ignored so many messages from messengers that I was left on my own, and then one day I looked up. Perhaps it was the pile of messages that I had ignored at my doorstep that got my attention but I understand now that God never left me. Jesus never gave up on me. I urge all to reach out to God for he can do so much for you with seemingly so little, but you have to take the time to listen.

John 20:11-18

11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." 14Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." 16Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rab-bo'ni!" (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." 18Mary Mag'dalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.