Just in Time
A few years ago during Easter week a wise friend leaned across the pews after a noontime service and said, “Easter always comes just in time.” I didn’t ask him what he meant, but I knew that he knew that I had been through a rough time. And the sly smile on his face showed that he also knew that there were hints of better times in the air.
I’ve come to an age where few people I know can say their life has played out exactly the way they planned or hoped. They were traveling along just fine and then something happened to knock them off course: they lost a job or a loved one; health issues threatened their lives and their resources; relationships changed; the storms of life blew away their dreams and aspirations. In some cases good things have happened that none-the-less changed the direction they were headed: an unexpected love, an unexpected child, an exciting career opportunity, a transfer to a new city.
I know my wise friend was talking about easter with a little “e” – a metaphor for the deaths and resurrections we experience on this journey of life and not the resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate this season. But these personal easters are connected to the big Easter, because if God so loved the world that he gave us new life through the death and resurrection of his son, then surely we can trust His presence during these lesser deaths and rebirths.