The Empty Box and the Discovery of Hope

A few months ago, Tracie had a canker sore on her gum line, which made chewing and tasting very painful. She tried dabbing some medicine on it for several days and using gallons of antibacterial mouthwash, but nothing worked until we heard about a dissolving 'patch' you can put over the sore to accelerate healing. We made a late-night stop at Walgreens to get the medicine.
Tracie was so excited to get home, put this patch in her mouth, and begin to feel some relief from the pain of her canker sore. She excitedly opened the box, only to discover that the box she had brought was empty.

It appears that someone had opened the box at the store, removed the product, and left an empty box resting on the display shelf. In my hurry and excitement, I just picked up the box, expecting that what was in it would bring her some healing. Minutes later, when we returned home, we found that the product she needed wasn't available in the package she had purchased.

As we were working through our frustration, it struck me how many people around us do precisely the same things on a spiritual level – The package on the box looks like it has the potential to heal. Still, it turns out that the neatly designed box is empty. In their spiritual lives, there are people who invest themselves in all kinds of attractive-looking boxes, offers, programs, and schemes, hoping that they will find healing in them. But once they get past the attractive packaging, nothing offers any hope of healing.

• There are guys who think that the 'attractive box' of a new relationship is going to help bring healing from a messy divorce, but that's an empty box.
• Some women believe that the 'attractive box' of having the right look, the right clothes, or pleasing the right people will heal them, but it turns out to be an empty box.
• There are people who, in the insecurity of our economic climate, invest in hapless 'get rich quick' schemes... only to discover an 'empty box.'
• There are even people who think that the 'attractive box' of proper behavior will heal them, but ultimately it won't, because healing is not found in what we can do or can't do, but is found in what Jesus did for us.

Our social networking voyeurism, fascination with the trivial, pop psychologists, and multimedia sound bites all try to offer us an attractive box to bring healing… but ultimately, they are all empty boxes.

Our world is full of empty boxes that offer healing but can't provide it. Friend, an empty box leaves us still yearning for real healing. It is the empty tomb that offers us healing because it reveals to us 1) that God is faithful to his promises (and he promises healing!) and 2) that healing is available for the very worst of our ailments—the sickness of sin.

There is no healing that can come from an empty box. Healing comes from the empty tomb!