I'm Back by Tracy Williamson

I am back!  After sharing my final blog contribution to MTW in January it seems that there was no one eagerly waiting to take my place, so here I am once again. 

It is a strange feeling to say goodbye and just a short time later to say 'hello, I'm back!' 

With Easter not long behind us, I'm wondering if Jesus found it strange too?  How did it feel to walk out of that tomb into the glory of a new day? 

Sometimes in life and in our writing we feel something has come to an end.  We say goodbye and turn away.  

But its important to remember with God that our human goodbyes are often His hellos.

We see in creation, even now, the hellos of spring flowers turning the barren ground gold or blue; the winter hush and rush becoming the symphony of birds and petals in concert.  Life returns, joy rises, life blooms. 

Creation shouts out 'Hello, I'm back'

The agony of Jesus death meant that He left His friends and family overwhelmed with grief and horror.  

Could they ever hope again or laugh or sing? 

And yet one bleak morning after a fruitless night's fishing, they saw a man standing on the shore.  'Drop your nets the other side' he called.  And when they did, so many fish poured in they almost sank! 

Jesus didn't have to say, 'I'm back!'  They knew it.  They saw it with the warming fire He'd built them, breakfast cooking there, strong hands reaching out to pull their boat and its hoard of fish ashore.  

Jesus was back!

The same Jesus, yet different. 

Hope was reborn, laughter sounded and worship stirred.

The same Jesus, yet different, was back.

I too have come back a little different.  

Since the very day I last posted on here, I've been walking the path of bereavement.  I lost my mum.  I had to say goodbye knowing I would never see her in this life again.  

Just as Jesus came back the same, yet different, so do I because my loss has opened me to new understanding, new sadness and new hope.  

With my last book published and my blog for MTW ending, I wondered if it was time to say goodbye to me writing? 

But just as Jesus returned, the same but different, so we too will always return.  

There is always a new hello.  New hope to be shared, new laughter to sound, new worship to stir.

Through me and through you.

Because Jesus our ultimate 'Hello I'm Back' lives within us.

He is our resurrection.

I said goodbye to my last book, my last blog, my mum

But I now find its time to say hello.  To walk out of the darkness into the light, to the gold and blue of the new words, new life, new joy, new depth, new insight, new love, new laughter, new tears.

A new song.

I'm back and You Too.

Because while in this life there are always seasons of goodbye.

There is always the hope and certainty of 'hello, I'm back.'

Tracy Williamson is a writer and speaker working alongside blind singer/songwriter Marilyn Baker for MBM Trust , a ministry drawing people into intimacy with God.  Tracy has written several devotional and teaching books with her last, Unashamed, being published in Sept 23.