Thanks for joining us for this edition of the Our Daily Bread Devotional.

Alison Keeter wrote today's reading and titled it In the Garden.

My dad loved to sing the old hymns.

One of his favorites was in the garden.

A few years back, we sang it at his funeral. The chorus is simple.

And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own, and the joy we share as we

tarry there, none other has ever known. That song brought joy to my dad, as it does to me.

Him writer C. Austin Miles says he wrote this song in spring, 1912, after reading chapter

20 of the Gospel of John. As I read it that day, it seemed to be part of the scene. I became a silent witness to that dramatic

moment in Mary's life when she knelt before her Lord and cried, Roboni, or teacher.

In John 20, we find Mary Magdalene weeping near Jesus's empty tomb. There she met a man who asked

why she was crying. Thinking it was the

gardener, she spoke with the risen Savior, Jesus. Her sorrow turned to joy, and she ran to tell the

disciples, I have seen the Lord. We too have the assurance that Jesus is risen.

He's now in heaven with the Father, but he hasn't left us on our own.

Believers in Christ have His spirit inside us, and through Him, we have the assurance and joy of knowing He's with us, and we are His Own.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from John chapter 20, verses 11 through 18.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying as she wept she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where jesus body had been

one at the head and the other at the foot they asked Woman, why are you crying?

They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they have put him.

At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said,

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