untangling the web
KNOTS, TWISTS AND FAITH IN GOD
Saturday - between the trees
“And the LORD God planted all sorts of trees in the garden – beautiful trees that produced delicious fruit. At the centre of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” (Gen 2:9 NLT)
“Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life.” (Rev 22:14 NLT)
We don’t think of it as a nothing day
because we know the ending.
But it was, you know nothing,
just bleakness, despair, a sense of numbness,
pure nothingness.
Wedged between the horrors of what we now call ‘Good Friday’ and the triumph of Easter Sunday.
Waking up after sleepless nights
but with an active, troubled, restless sleep.
The storm has past
and yet, the tempest is still within.
Jesus is dead.
All is pain, desolation, a muzzled silence because the grief is too much to bear.
Saturday is the day your dream died
and, with it, everything you are,
everything you’ve known,
everything you’ve cared about,
everything you’ve done,
everything.
You wake up
and drag your anxious, weary body out of bed,
because you have to go on.
You don’t know how to,
or why you’re bothering.
But you do.
Crushed between the bad news and the good news.
Trapped between despair and joy.
Squeezed between darkness and light.
Living between the trees.
Tomorrow you will wake up
and the terror will be past.
The miracle of Saturday is perhaps
greater than the miracle of Sunday.
The eternal God lies dead
and shares the terror with you.
Inspired by Who is this man? by John Ortberg, chapter 14, Saturday.