Altar Call – Opelika-Auburn News

Walter Albritton

April 8, 2012

There’s just got to be another morning!

Years ago when we lived in Mobile a neighbor’s little girl was killed in an automobile accident. I think she was seven. She was a beautiful child. Our young sons often played with her and other children in the neighborhood.

The child’s sudden death in a freak wreck at an intersection shocked and saddened us. Though we were not close friends with the family my wife and I decided to attend the funeral at a nearby church. The church was filled with friends and family members who wanted to share the sorrow of the grieving family.

What I remember most about the funeral was a solo sung by a young woman. I had never heard the song before but it seemed perfect for the occasion. Though I cannot locate this song anywhere today, the words still etched in my mind are these: “There’s got to be another morning!” That was the theme of the song: because of the pain and sadness of life, there’s got be another morning.

I wept as I listened and kept saying in my mind, “Yes! Yes! That’s right! There’s just got to be another morning!” That beautiful girl had only begun to live. Her life was cut short. So there just has to be another morning when bad things are made right, when the unfinished can finally be completed. Surely her tragic death is not the end; there simply has to be more, thus the plaintive hope for “another morning.”

In the face of the heartbreaking death of a child the human spirit longs for, even cries for more. The cynic does not share this longing. Life is not fair, he says; the grave is the end so accept it and get on with your life. But hope lives on in the hearts of others who cling to the conviction that a loving God provides for life beyond the grave.

That is one reason why I believe in the resurrection. Surely God has another plan for a beautiful life that is snuffed out at age seven. Surely his plans include the completion of lovely things that are not finished in this earthly life. Surely the God who is the author of life is able to finish on the other side what he so beautifully began on this side.

Question my conclusion if you must but I am persuaded that at last, whenever God brings down the curtain, the crooked will be made straight. Darkness will be overcome by the light. Goodness will prevail over evil. Life will conquer death. Love will win in the end; hate will lose. Though God allows evil to have its day, ultimately he will see to it that right triumphs over wrong. Righteousness will finally defeat wickedness.

I believe in the resurrection because it was necessary for God to complete what he began in Jesus. Death, hell and the grave had to give way to the power of God. He raised his son Jesus from the grave so he could complete the gracious plan of redemption. Alive once again, Jesus gathered his disciples and commissioned them to make known and complete the plan of salvation for the world.

Confronted by the resurrected Christ, the apostles could hardly believe what had happened – but they did believe it. They saw Jesus die on the cross. Then they saw him alive, raised from the dead by the power of God. They did as Jesus told them and soon were filled with a strange new power themselves. The same divine power that raised Jesus from the dead filled the disciples with new life, joy and hope. They began spreading the word – “He’s alive!”

Down the centuries since then that good news has continued to spread. Millions have believed the testimony of those early disciples and have continued to pass along the message – “He’s alive!”

On this glad Easter day that message will be proclaimed on every continent as more and more people believe and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and his promise of eternal life to his followers. Then one day the end will come and Jesus will return to judge the world. At that time there will be another morning, a glorious morning when God will finish the unfinished. I believe it. There has just got to be another morning – because He’s alive! + + +