The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter always captures my imagination. Jesus' followers woke up the day after they witnessed the horror of His death, and must have thought to themselves what just happened? Shock, grief, confusion, fear. Have you been there? One day the bottom drops out. The unexpected, unimaginable happens. You wake up and every thing is the same yet everything is different. Life as you knew it is ever altered. You know things will never be the same but you have to go on.
These first disciples, the men and women who loved Jesus, had to wonder what the last three years had been about. The One they loved and pinned their hopes on was gone. Horribly gone. What they imagined to be was not to be. Their hopes and dreams lay in the dust.
Those days come to us all, something tragic happens and our lives are altered forever. How we envision the trajectory of our lives must be let go of and reimagined. That can be a very hard thing as we have lived our lives in pursuit and reliance on those dreams. But as we know, Jesus wasn't finished with them yet just as He isn't finished with us. He had much better things in store for them, lives they had no ability, no context to even conceive of.
This transition from Friday's heartache to Saturday's shock and grief to Sunday's joy is a picture of our lives. The tragic things that happen to us are followed but confusion and grief. But we must hold on to hope trusting Sunday's joy is coming.
Jesus knew what He was doing. He told His followers many times He was to suffer and die. Scripture tells us this was God's plan from the beginning of time. Death could not prevail against the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He has bigger things in store for us too, even as we have to face losses in life. This is not to deny our grief during those times. But we must trust ultimately,
"What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived" -
the things God has prepared for those who love Him.
1 Corinthians 2:9
We must hold loosely to our hopes and our dreams in order to live well, knowing whatever comes, Jesus loves us, knows us intimately, and has our best interest at heart even when we can't yet see it.
Thank You Lord, I can trust You, knowing Sunday joy came to the first disciple and it is coming to us too.
