We think we understand people. We look–and we decide. I did. Julie Adams came to church on crutches. She was quiet and faithful. I placed her, without realizing it, into a category: limitation, a life different from others. Then one day she asked me to officiate her wedding. I must admit I was curious. At our premarital meeting, the door opened. A tall, very handsome man walked in–joyful, natural. Julie’s fiancé. Not someone helping her. Not someone sacrificing for her. He loved her. And Julie–she was radiant. I had been wrong.

Julie shared her story with me. Since childhood, she lived with severe illness. Years of pain. Years of prayer. Her aunt knelt by her bed every night: “If it be thy will, Lord, please heal her.” The healing did not come as expected. Her aunt died without seeing it. But Julie did not lose faith. She did not live around her limitations, but through them. She moved to the city alone when others doubted her, built a life, became independent, and helped raise her sisters’ children when their lives fell apart. 

“If I had been healed,” she said, “I would probably be a different person. Not better–just different. Perhaps this is my purpose.”

That is what her fiancé saw in her. The wedding was beautiful. They traveled. They laughed. They lived.

I remember thinking how often we look–and do not see. How quickly we decide what is possible for someone else, or for ourselves. We think life is diminished when something is taken away, but often we miss what is given–not instead, but through.

This is what Easter reveals. When faith and hope remain, something begins to bloom where no one expected it. Not because everything was restored, but because something deeper was given.

Julie’s life is not a story of what did not happen. It is a story of what did. And it is more than enough.

Celebrate Resurrection!