He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. — Matthew 28:6
I will never forget the moment we first saw our son.
It was a photograph in an email from the adoption agency. We reached out immediately, asking every question we could think of. And soon we were told the words we had been hoping to hear: he was matched with us. He would be our son.
But the promise and the reality were separated by a long, uncertain road.
Months passed. Paperwork moved slowly. There were days when the wait felt endless, and the promise felt distant. We held on to what we had been told, but holding on to a promise is not the same as holding your child. Nearly a year went by before I sat in a room in China and watched him walk through the door.
In that moment, everything we had been told became real.
The women who walked to the tomb on that first Easter morning understood something about waiting for a promise. They had followed Jesus. They had heard His words. He had told them plainly that He would rise again. But between the promise and the morning of its fulfillment stood a cross, a burial, and three days of silence that must have felt impossibly long.
When they arrived at the tomb, they were not expecting what they found.
The stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty. And an angel met them with words that changed everything: He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.
As he said.
Those two words are easy to pass over. But they carry enormous weight. Jesus had told them this would happen. The resurrection was not a surprise to Him. It was not a last-minute rescue or an unexpected turn of events. It was the plan all along, spoken plainly, fulfilled completely, exactly as He said.
Every promise God has ever made carries those same two words behind it. As he said.
The promise of forgiveness, as he said. The promise of peace that passes understanding, as he said. The promise that He would never leave or forsake us, as he said. The promise of eternal life for all who believe, as he said. None of these promises are uncertain. None of them are subject to delay or cancellation. They will be fulfilled completely, in His time, exactly as He said.
The resurrection is not simply something we celebrate once a year. It is the evidence that God keeps every word He has spoken. Because the tomb is empty, we can trust every promise that remains. Because He rose, death has been defeated, sin has been forgiven, and the future He has prepared for those who believe in Him is as certain as that empty tomb.
He is risen. Exactly as He said.
And every promise He has made to you will come to pass in the same way: completely, faithfully, and exactly as He said.
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About Another Well Ministries
Another Well Ministries exists to help people slow down, listen deeply, and encounter God in the ordinary places of life. Through devotionals, reflections, and spiritual resources, we seek to create space for faith to be formed with honesty, grace, and hope.
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