God doesn't make storytelling mistakes, but this story is odd.

Her eyes stung from the tears.

Her chest heaved with the kind of grief that comes in waves.

Sharp, then hollow.

She pulled her shawl tighter, but it didn’t help. The morning was cold. The kind of cold that settles into your bones and comes with misery.

The garden was quiet. Still damp with dew.

The sun hadn’t yet broken the horizon, but the sky was starting to bleed light.

She shouldn’t have been out here alone. But where else would she go?

She had watched Him die. Slow, brutal, public. She had seen the door of the tomb closed. And now even that had been taken. The body was gone. The grave was empty. The nightmare wasn’t over.

So she wept. That’s all she could do.

Until a voice broke the silence. “Why are you crying?”

She didn’t recognize Him.

Not until He said her name. “Mary.”

And just like that, the whole story shifted.

~

Let’s rewind.

Mary Magdalene’s name shows up in all four gospel accounts of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. She’s a pretty remarkable character in the gospel story alongside the disciples (who often steal the spotlight).

And her introduction is intense.

Luke 8 tells us that Jesus cast seven demons out of her.

Not one. Not a few. Seven.

In the Bible, seven often means complete, implying Mary had been completely overtaken—emotionally, spiritually, mentally.

She was a wreckage of a person when we met her in the story. The kind most people give up on.

But not Jesus.

He restores her, includes her, and calls her into His inner circle, and because of that, she becomes a faithful follower and financial supporter of His ministry.

Mary Magdalene.

A name that should have been forgotten in human history….

…becomes the first witness of the resurrection.

Now pause and think like a storyteller.

Why Mary?

• Why not Peter—the bold leader?

• Why not John—the “disciple Jesus loved”?

• Why not someone with influence, credibility. . .a platform?

Because God doesn’t make storytelling mistakes.

And the Bible is packed with master-level narrative decisions, not by accident, but by design.

God is the ultimate storyteller. The One who wired our brains for meaning and emotion knows exactly how to craft a moment that resonates. It’s no surprise that His stories still stir hearts thousands of years later.

God doesn’t waste a single detail.

Not the setting. Not the sequence. Not the characters.

• He uses contrast.

• He uses callbacks.

• He uses reversals.

And when I study the way God tells stories, I don’t just see theology, I see craft. Craft that shapes how I write. How I teach. How I share stories that actually move people.

So let’s go back to Mary Magdalene and pay attention to how God writes this story.

~

Scene setting: A garden. (John 20:15)

Not a field. Not a mountaintop. A garden.

Why does that matter?

Because the first garden in the Bible was Eden. And it was there, through another woman, that the serpent introduced sin and death.

Now we’re back in a garden and Jesus reveals his power over death.

Piece by piece, thread by thread, the resurrected Jesus unwinds the curse from the Garden of Eden. Mary Magdalene, a daughter of Eve, who was once bound by Satan (seven demons), now sees Satan defeated in the risen Christ.

The woman, first marked by handing over the fruit, now gets to hand over the good news of the gospel (Jesus sends her out to tell the disciples he’s alive).

It’s poetic.

As writers and storytellers, we have a couple of takeaways:

• Echo the past — The garden setting ties this moment to Genesis. It’s a callback. Great stories do this all the time. (Think: The Lion King mimicking Hamlet, or Endgame returning to earlier Marvel moments.)

• Subvert expectations — A woman with a sketchy past becomes the bearer of the most important news in history. This is a reversal. It forces the audience to re-evaluate what they thought mattered.

• Use poetic justice — In Genesis, a woman offers death. In John, a woman offers life. That's restoration with intentional symmetry, one of the most emotionally satisfying tools in storytelling.

God could’ve written the resurrection scene any way He wanted.

He wrote this one.

So what does that mean for us?

Two things:

1. Your story isn’t too messy to matter. If Mary’s arc can go from demoniac to disciple to eyewitness of glory, yours isn’t too far gone either.

2. God’s narrative structure is a model for yours. When you write, whether it's a sermon, a newsletter, or a social post, don’t just transfer information. Tell stories that reverse the curse. Anchor your scenes. Echo the past. Show the unexpected. Let grace disrupt.

Christian storytelling should never be flat. It should feel like resurrection.

~

Keep telling better stories,

Payton

P.S. Want more breakdowns like this? Forward this to a friend and tell them to subscribe at ChristianStoryLab.com. I write these for Christians who want to tell stories that carry the weight of glory. Let’s raise the bar.