The Walking Dead...Beware of Zombies!

                                                                                                              (photo courtesy of tomsguide.com)


I was trying to write but found it absolutely impossible to do so with the gurgling, gargling, wretched zombie noises in the background.
It was a Sunday night.
"The Walking Dead" was on and my 15 year old is hooked.

Personally, I don't understand the widespread fascination with the whole zombie thing.
There was a Zombie parade last year down at Hemisphere Park and hundreds of people dressed up as dead divas come to life, and wandered the streets of San Antonio in all of their bloody "Ghosts Come out at Midnight" splendor.

When I was a teenager we were taken in by the drama of "Footloose" and were shocked and horrified that a town would actually ban dancing.
And every week, we watched the Dukes of Hazard and despised Boss Hog.
The boys talked all week of course about Daisy Dukes short shorts.

And the Farrah Fawcett poster.
But zombies, really?
They're kind of gross.
And on Sunday?

God do I miss Walton Mountain and the wonderful world of Walt Disney!

Not that I wake up every day and live totally alive myself.
Some days I too feel like the walking dead.
But death is not fun.
I've been sort of dead before.

Dead in various sins, selfishness and transgressions, quietly wishing someone would somehow, someway, crush my skull, destroy my brain and put me out of my misery once and for all.

Life and Death.
"I set before you life and death, choose life."
Then again, choosy mothers choose Jiff and I use Peter Pan.
Perhaps if I could purchase the right peanut butter, the rest would just fall into place.

Admittedly, sometimes I add my own crunch to life and things don't go quite so smoothly.

What's in your head? In your head... Zombie....

I've been reading about Lazurus the past few days and have thought a lot about life and death and resurrection power.
Talk about a Walker!

The guy was dead for like four days before he was brought back to life!

I can see Jim Carey standing outside the tomb yelling and signaling, "Whew! Do NOT go in there!"

At Chelsea's baby shower a few weeks ago, we smiled, laughed and celebrated the coming of a new life. My grand-daughter, Saydee Grace.

Just outside her festive party, a family clad in black stood in the hallway, quietly gathering for a funeral.
By the looks of those in attendance, it was probably a grandmother or grandfather.
Someone else's mother or father.

Hopefully, later, they would be able to celebrate that person's life and not rest in the sadness.
It was a somber moment and a strange contrast of emotions, separated only by two large wooden double doors.

When I read about Lazarus being brought back from the dead, I am most amazed by the actions of Jesus.
He kind of jacked around a bit before going to the rescue.

Mary and Martha sent word to him that he was very sick.
And even though Jesus loved Lazarus, it says in John 11:6 NLT, "so he stayed where he was for the next two days."

Huh?
God apparently moves when he wants to move.
No amount of begging or manipulation is going to get him to do what we need him to do when we want him to do it.

I've tried.
And it doesn't work. :)

He does what needs to be done in His own time.
Which is usually not the same time frame that we'd like him to go by.

Which is annoying.
Not just to us, but Martha and Mary were kind of annoyed too.

When he finally showed up in Bethany, their brother had been dead four days.
Not "for days"...but "four" actual days!!

And Martha was the first to lay into him, "Lord, if you had only been here, my brother would not have died."
I can hear the brown nosing, "But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask."

He said back, "Your brother will rise again."
And then she, being the suck up type I picture her to be, replies sweetly, "Yes. He will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day."

But Jesus, in his head, was probably thinking, "Woman. You don't have a clue what I'm talking about!"

He said instead, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyhone who believes in me will live even after dying. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this Martha?"

"Yes, I believe," she responded and went and got her sister.
Then she comes to complain as well. "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died."

In my head, Jesus had to be saying to himself, "Pack your bags folks...we're going on a guilt trip!"

Some of the other people standing around were grumbling as well, "Geez. He healed a blind man. Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying."

You can almost picture them looking at each other with raised eyes and their quiet tsk tsk tsk's.

And at this point, Jesus himself got ticked and angry. He had to have been thinking, "How many miracles is it going to take for you people to believe that I am who I say I am?!?"

He walked over to the tomb, "Roll the stone aside..."
Then he thanked his heavenly father for always hearing him and shouted, "Lazarus, come out!!"

And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his faced wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, "Unwrap him and Let Him Go!"

It was a magnificent miracle and dramatic gesture for all to see for sure!
A real Zombie Apocolypse....
"BAM! and BEHOLD!! A Walker!"

Brought back from the dead.
By resurrection power.
To live.