There Will Come a Third Day

I’ve been in a period of “Holy Saturday” for many years. I deem Holy Saturday to be a time of waiting, uncertainty, and God’s silence. I just don’t know what’s going to happen or how God is going to bring new life, nor has God told me. I'm like the women at the tomb and things tend to look a bit bleak.

Maybe you have been in a time of Holy Saturday too or the suffering of Good Friday or the agony of Holy Thursday… for too long. Maybe it's sickness, mental health problems, family strife, a sick family member, joblessness, financial problems, overwork, terminal or chronic illness, a child struggling in school, a newborn baby that won't sleep, an unanswered prayer, spiritual desolation or discouragement, vocational confusion, a lack of purpose, or any number of earthly struggles and sufferings.

A few months ago, I heard a line that has stuck with me: There will come a third day. It stuck with me because it’s a proclamation of hope and calls to mind the promise of Easter. 

There will come a day when the agony in your garden will be a budding garden of flowers. There will come a day when the wood of the cross of burdens and sufferings you carried will be the tree of new life. There will come a day when the stone you couldn't budge will be miraculously moved away. There will come a day when the joy of God’s promises fulfilled will wipe away the tears and struggles you have faced in patiently persevering. God makes all things new in His time and His way. We've all experienced these third days at one time or another.

We are an Easter people, and it can be VERY hard to live in the belief of what is to come versus what I see and experience now. But being an Easter people means that we believe and live in the hope that there will come a third day, and that Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday agony, suffering, dying to self, and waiting are often necessary to get to Easter Sunday, especially for people growing in the image and likeness of Christ. Have you ever noticed that God gives us a share in these experiences to learn deeper truths of our faith?

So keep living through your Holy Thursday, or your Good Friday, or your Holy Saturday because remember, there will come a third day.