Living in Saturday

Today is Good Friday. The day we remember the sacrifice. His death.

With the rising and setting of the sun comes Saturday. I was reminded in my reading this week of the grief His disciples must have felt on that first Saturday. Trying to process his death. Questioning WHAT in the WORLD just happened. Scared. Confused. Hurt to the very CORE. Unaware of the HOPE Sunday would bring.

We are living in Saturday.

I read posts like this or this and I hurt. I am exposed to gritty stories of HARD, painful life experiences. I look into the eyes of the orphaned; I am told their stories of loss and I hurt. I see my brokenness surface over and over and I see that brokenness affect the people I love.

I catch my kid's looking for me as they perform for the church during the Easter program and I remember a girl in Ukraine who looked for me. I think of the millions of kids all over the world who have no one to look for. No one to advocate for them, pray for them or even remember them. And I hurt.

We all experience the hurt. Some more than others. Some in huge, unbearable doses. It is always there. If you haven't felt it, you will. The hurt is inevitable. Some try to hide from it or find ways to avoid or ignore it, but eventually, it finds us all.

The hurt is an undeniable truth of living in Saturday.

But there is one big difference between us and His disciples that first Saturday.

We KNOW the HOPE that comes with Sunday.

We are LIVING in Saturday, but Sunday IS coming.

We HURT in the now; but we live, by HIS grace, for the day when the hurt will leave FOREVER.
And, because of Sunday, the hurt we experience is bearable, the JOY deeper, and the PEACE overwhelming. Life can overflow with purpose. The LOVE of Jesus, who lived in our hurt, can be shared, RELISHED and overflow to ALL who wish to receive it!

PRAISE God for the empty tomb and the HOPE of Sunday!

Then the men asked, "Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? 

He isn't here! He is risen from the dead!  

Luke 24:5b-6a