Silent Saturdays

I am currently taking a course for my Masters that requires me to face all the losses in my life. It is only in sitting with the loss, the grief, that I can become a better people helper. So today I am sitting in Holy Saturday, the silent day between the cross and the empty tomb.

It is quiet here. Alone with my thoughts and perplexed by how even this could be good? The questions get louder, "But Lord, did you see what they did to me? How could you stand by and watch that?" And I hear God's heart break. The tears fall like rain from heaven.

Yes, he saw. He saw everything. He knows. He saw the sins done against you, placed on His beloved Son. He had to turn away from the evil things and listen as his Son cried out for His Father. And then He had to stay silent all Saturday long.

Season's of my life have felt like Holy Saturday. Years without answers. Prayers prayed and I felt like it just bounced off the ceiling. Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope (Rom. 5:2-5). You can't reside in the hope of God's goodness and unfailing love, unless you have built the required character that comes from enduring pain and suffering.

Hope is different on Saturday. We haven't experienced the breakthrough, we don't know what miracles lie ahead. We are just waiting. The tomb is still closed, the work is happening in the darkness.

Hold on to hope. Sunday is coming.