In 1994 Nevest Coleman was working his dream job as a groundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox. That’s when he was convicted of murdering a 20-year-old woman. He received life in prison for a crime that, in November 2017, he was proven innocent of committing. Coleman was released from prison. A few weeks later, for the first time in over two decades, Coleman showed up for his dream job again. The Chicago White Sox gave him his job back. 

I’m sure during those 23 years Coleman never dreamed of this happening. Kind of like times we may be convinced that our hearts will never smile again, that our brokenness will never go away, or that we’ll never heal. That’s how the disciples felt as they woke up on Easter morning because they thought Jesus was dead.

But at various times over the following weeks, Jesus, who had also been wrongly convicted and who really did die, was standing right there in front of them. He was fully alive even after he had died, showing them very clearly that, in the end, death doesn’t get the final say in a person’s existence. Jesus does. In the end, death doesn’t win. Jesus did. But it wasn’t his own victory he was most eager to show the world. It was yours. “By this gospel, you are saved,” Scripture says (1 Corinthians 15:2).

You. No matter how weak, exhausted, guilty, or broken you feel from day to day. You. Are. Saved.