When you’re in the “in between” place…

We watched The Passion of the Christ on Good Friday.

It got me to thinking about the hours in between His gruesome death, and His victorious resurrection.

Surely, those were dark hours for His family and followers.

Dark hours when doubt nipped at their heels,

“Was He really who He said He was?”

“Will He really rise from the dead as He said?”

“How? When?”

As I look back over my life, much of life occurs in the “in between” hours,

the dark hours before the promise.

I can remember dark days, seemingly hopeless situations, when sleep at night was a refuge from the pain,

only to waken in the dark and feel my heart sink as I remembered…

…a broken relationship with a brother or sister in Christ

…a huge financial pressure

…my daughter’s third miscarriage after years and years of infertility

…loss of our beautiful new church building due to a lawsuit by other believers

…death of a parent

…a spiritual daughter walking away from Jesus and from us

Thank God, the “in between” doesn’t last forever.

The dark days do give way to life and light and resurrection and promise.

Looking back, so many times my mind and emotions screamed,

“I can’t do this!”

Yet, here I am, still here.

Many of the situations gave way to glorious promise fulfilled.

Many were answered, not by some glorious restoration of loss,

but by His comfort and knowledge that His plans aren’t always our plans.

Many were answered by His strength, grace and endurance given,

enabling me to put one foot in front of the other and to keep walking.

But in them all, the “in-between” doesn’t last forever.

One way or the other, Good Friday gives way to Sunday, to promise, to life, to resurrection.

Thank God.

my continuing gratitude list #1063-#1080

-His great grace

-baby granddaughter, (yes, oldest daughter has her miracle baby!),

now talking in the most delightful full sentences!

-the blue of the sky

-the blue of a blue jay

-the amazing varieties of bird song on one walk outdoors

-dinner with a dear couple from church, whose home overflows with grace and peace

-a day of running errands with the Hubs

-my funny brothers and sisters and their funny emails

-favorite books, revisited like old friends

-Psalm 118

-a Friend that sticks closer than a brother

-squirrels playing tag in the tree outside my window

-cloudless blue sky on Good Friday

-beautiful pre-Easter Saturday filled with yard work, housework, cooking, baking

-Easter Sunday-He Lives!

-company for Easter dinner

-Easter phone calls from my South Carolina grandbabies

-Easter greeting, “Christ is risen!” “Christ is risen indeed!”

 

Gratefully yours,

Elizabeth