There’s something so poignant about the first sounds of birdsong in spring.  Their clear notes are almost piercing at first, louder after a long absence.  It makes you realize that you’ve missed the sweet sound, that the passing winter was silent, void of the music now filling the air. 

I wonder if Mary Magdalene’s Easter morning walk to the garden was accompanied by birdsong.  Did nature sense something big was happening? 

I love imaging this scene in John 20 and picturing myself in Mary’s shoes.  What was that morning like?  How far did she have to walk?  Was it light by the time she got to the garden?  What did she see – her 360-degree view of the scene that changed everything?

I like to imagine that she heard birdsong as she entered the garden.  Maybe the smell of wet earth rose to meet her.  Maybe the morning mist was starting to clear as she neared the tomb.   

I don’t know the specifics of that Easter morning, but I do know Jesus cast seven demons out of her (Mark 16:9 and Luke 8:2).  I know He was her only hope.  If He didn’t rise from the dead, then there would be nothing to keep her from going back to her old life, no power to maintain her freedom.  So, she would not leave Jesus.  She could not.  He was her only hope – and while that hope may have been dwindling in His followers, it was not extinguished. 

With an ember of hope flickering in her eyes and undying love in her heart, she went to the tomb, to the last place she had seen Him.  She went to minister to Him one last time.  She could not bear to be separated from Him, even from His dead body.  She had to see it through to the end.  Her devotion demanded it. 

And devotion she had in spades.  Let’s continue our deep dive into John 20 and consider the ways in which Mary’s devotion to Jesus was expressed.