“I have always heard that your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die.”
Lester Burnham, American Beauty

“They say your whole life flashes before you when you die… It’s true, even for a blind man.”
Matt Murdoch, Daredevil

“Flashes Before Your Eyes”
Title of Lost episode, Aired February 2007

“Me whole life flashed before me eyes. It was really boring.”
Babs, Chicken Run

So I am 17 and standing beside the free throw line at the sub state basketball tournament. We are 3 seconds away from making it to state. Our absolute best free throw shooter is at the line with the chance to win the game. She is money. She never misses. The shot goes up and rolls around and around and around the rim and then mercilessly falls out. The basketball hits the court and thud, thud, thuds out of bounds. Sometimes, when I close my eyes at night I still see that dang ball rolling out of that rim. I think when I die – if there were to be such a thing as your life flashing before your eyes – I’d see that ball rolling out.

But seriously, what would we see? I think I’d see my kindergarten teacher Mrs. York teaching me to read. I’d see my father putting the finishing touches on a kite he had made for me. I would see my Mom reading the Sunday paper to my family on the way home from an Auburn game. I would see my Grandmother teaching me to make cornbread. I would see the look on my brother Robbie’s face when he realized he had accidentally driven me to Mississippi. I would see my brother Joey circling me in his arms and telling me it was going to be alright the morning we left him at college. I would see my husband, sitting in that old apartment in Auburn the first time I ever watched him play the guitar. I’d see my son and I reading “Oh, What a Busy Day” at bedtime. I’d see my son Henry throwing his arms around me and declaring “that’s MY mommy!”

I was thinking about the disciples the other night and what they must have been thinking as they watched Jesus being led down the Via Dolorosa on the way to the cross. Did their relationship with Him flash before their eyes? Did Simon see Him calling out to him on that hot and dusty seashore the morning they first met? Did he remember the first miracle he saw Him perform? Did he remember the fear and the awe he had when he watched that miracle? Did he remember the mercy He showed and did he wonder why there was no mercy being shown to Him? Did Simon’s mind drift to when He preached the radical Sermon on the Mount? Did he remember the wisdom and the authority He had when He spoke? Did he remember the smell of Lazarus’ tomb and the first sight he had of Lazarus as Jesus’ commanded him to come out of that tomb? And as he saw Jesus’ body bloody and beaten did he wonder how it had all come down to this?

As the seconds ticked off the clock of my last game and that ball bounced out of the basket that was the end of our team’s story. We got back on the bus and went home. But when Jesus was nailed to the cross it was as far from the end of His story as it could possibly be. When Mary Magdalene ran to the disciples and told them He was alive, that he had risen - what flashed before their eyes? Was it the times they had seen him prophesy that he would return? The miracles he had done? I kind of doubt it. I bet it was the remembrance of the love he had shown each and every one of them individually. I bet they remembered a conversation beside a quiet fire. A stout hug He had given them. A time He had laughed at a joke they had made. Mostly I bet it was a feeling of pure joy.

We’ve all heard that the most important part of Jesus’ story isn’t the cross - it’s the empty tomb. It’s what that empty tomb means to each and every one of us. It’s about the love that it took to get to that tomb and about the love that it took to make that tomb empty.

Jesus’ story wasn’t done then and it isn’t done now. What’s left up to us is how we are going to be a part of Jesus’ story.

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