Living through Saturday

When I was a teenager, just the word Saturday was enough to make me smile. It was the high point of the week, promise and anticipation wrapped up in its very essence. My heart would beat a little faster as I considered all the possibilities that day held. Saturday was the day to aim for.

But 2,000 years ago, for a ragtag bunch of guys hiding out in a city otherwise celebrating, Saturday held anything but promise and anticipation. Their Saturday was filled with despair, fear, disbelief, sorrow, and anger. The promised king, the one the prophecies claimed would deliver freedom for their nation, was dead. Murdered like a criminal. And with him in the tomb lay all their hopes and dreams.

Maybe you find yourself living in a Saturday like this...hopes dashed, promises left undelivered, dreams left broken. Maybe you thought that all signs pointed one direction and your life has made a detour through unknown landscapes. Maybe the results you've worked for have been handed to someone else. Or maybe things have turned out like you planned, only the joy you thought would arrive never showed up.

We know the rest of the disciples' story, that Sunday came and changed everything. The burial tomb was empty; Jesus had conquered death. Even the most final of circumstances was no longer final.

My prayer for each of us is that we take the Resurrection of Christ and apply it to our lives. What looks like the end might just be the Saturday before the most amazing, life changing Sunday in history.

"As it is written, no eye has seen nor ear has heard and what no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)."