Expectations

Two friends of Jesus trudged back home after a holiday weekend in the big city. They trudged, eyes downcast, hardly able to take in the disappointment, the shock, the grief. They talked as they walked, perhaps in staccato bursts of emotion with long silences between.

A stranger joined them and asked about their conversation. They couldn’t believe anyone could have been in Jerusalem over this Passover weekend and not know about the strange happenings. The crucifixions – maybe not such a headline grabber in this province of the brutal Romans. But these were different. There was an earthquake, too, and darkness over the land for three hours. The curtain of the Temple, thick and heavy, had ripped from top to bottom just as Jesus died on the cross.

And now, the strangest thing of all. The tomb where Jesus’ dead body had been laid was found empty by his followers and some claimed they had seen Jesus alive again, risen from death. How had this man not heard about all this?

The two friends hadn’t expected the weekend to end this way. It seemed a total disaster. 

As the stranger broke bread with them, though, they recognised him...Jesus! It was true! He was alive again. And then he was gone.

Some of my expectations don’t turn out as I think they will. I imagine fantastic outcomes and then can be disappointed when they don’t materialise. 

But hidden within every disappointment is a divine twist, because our creative Lord is able to bring beauty from ashes, joy from pain, life from death.

Today I am not so much carrying my own disappointments as I am the disappointments of others whom I know well. My prayer for them this day is that they will take a second look and see what the Lord is able to do with anything offered to him. 

I have no preconceived notion of what that might look like...only an expectation that when anything is put into the hands of our almighty God, he can do more with it than we can ask or imagine.

Happy Easter Tuesday!