For many, this weekend is a time of reflection and remembrance, and appropriately so.
Good Friday was yesterday, the day when we remember Jesus going to the cross in a sacrificial act of unconditional love.
What we oftentimes forget about is the waiting period between the death and the resurrection.
It is natural that we all have or will experience a “death” in our lives. A crushed dream, the loss of a loved one, or the unbearable tearing away from comfort.
The Bible speaks of seasons, and most of the time we don’t celebrate the ones marked by death, loss, or drought, but in those times we also feel a vibrant hope birthing from within the darkest of places.
Perhaps that is because of this very Easter season. We live after the fact and we know that Jesus rose from the dead and that he is alive today.
Yesterday, I was reading in Joshua 3 of the less told story of the parting of waters, squeezed in between Rahab helping the spies and the walls of Jericho crumbling. Joshua was now leading the Israelites and they needed to cross the Jordan River. There was one verse that really stuck out to me though. In verse 5, Joshua told the people “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
The reason why this stuck out to me so much was not because of what would take place the next day, but the fact that it wasn’t an immediate miracle. Joshua had to tell the people to consecrate themselves: make themselves holy and purified, because the next day, the Lord would do wonders.
Could it be that the miracle you’re waiting for, the thing you’ve been longing for, the death you’re waiting for new life to inhabit is requiring something more than a stagnant waiting? Are we preparing ourselves for the wonders the Lord wants to do among us? The death may have taken place yesterday, but the resurrection is about to happen tomorrow. As we wait in anticipation of the miraculous, don’t lose sight of the hope that lies within the darkness.
And so in the midst of death, we wait. We wait and prepare for the wonders to come. The resurrection of new life, of new hope, of new glorious light.
Marissa
Caffeinated Theologian 