The second day
This fresh set of Daily Devotions is being provided for our LCA/NZ family, friends and visitors to help us to keep our eyes on Jesus as we face unsettling times. They can be used by families and individuals as part of the LCA/NZ’s Church@Home resources to encourage us and build trust in our Heavenly Father during this season of uncertainty and physical isolation.
by Linda Macqueen
Click here for your printable verse to carry with you today.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope (Psalm 130:5).
There is the day Jesus died, the first day. Good Friday.
There is the day Jesus rose from the dead, the third day. Easter Sunday.
And there is the second day. The pause.
Many of us forget to pause. We who have known since we were toddlers how the Easter story ends can rush too quickly from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, and we can miss the lesson, the lament, of the second day.
On the second day, Jesus is dead. His followers’ lives are turned on their heads – the shock, the desperate despair, the brutal agonising betrayal: ‘Why did he lie to us? We are fools – how could we have believed that he loved us?’ And the fear – the consuming, gut-churning fear.
Where are you, God? Why have you abandoned us?
Nothing. Not a sound from God, no comforting Spirit breeze, no whisper of peace. From the God who commanded storms to be quiet and demons to flee … now only cold, empty silence as the disciples huddle together in the dark behind locked doors.
The second day.
For the disciples, the third day, resurrection day, came quickly. Jesus rose from death and in one glorious life-changing moment their despair and fear turned to joy upon joy! For you, for me, though, the second day can last weeks, months, years, maybe a lifetime. Pain, depression, hopelessness, fear, darkness – so deep, so relentless that we can barely believe anymore that our resurrection day will ever come. Faith trembles. Hope fades.
But your resurrection will come. God has promised it. He might be silent but he is with you. God cannot break his promises, and he has promised that he will never leave you or abandon you. He walks softly with you in your darkest night, his Presence closer than your breathing, carrying you in his arms to your resurrection day.
For as surely as night follows day, so day follows the night. One day soon you will hear the pre-dawn cackle of kookaburras, as your resurrection day awakens.
Until it does, wait and pray. Pray and wait. Your resurrection day will come.
Lord my God, the second day is hard. It is hard to keep believing in you when I can see no hint of the end, no light on the horizon. Thank you for holding me during those times when I can no longer hold on to you. Amen.
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