Disappointment or Anticipation: Reliving Sacred Saturday

Something is not quite right. Something is still missing.

Vital details are not yet in place. Gaps and loose ends and ragged edges are evident. It’s definitely not time for the house lights to dim and the curtain to rise. It was supposed to be better than this.

(You have probably felt that pinch, endured the itch. You can add your own details.)

When these times come, we have only a couple of options.

One option is to give center stage to Eeoyre, the droopy, depressed, disappointed donkey of Pooh stories. But then the whole of the story gets foggy and fuzzy in the gloomy mist. The shine goes away from every object in sight. There is not a twinkle or dazzle to be found. Laughter is a fairytale and festive is a fantasy. Catastrophe is probable – no, it is inevitable.

Disappointment will rule the day – and the day after …

Sacred Saturday, that day after “Good Friday,” epitomizes such times. And it was more horrific than anything we’ve ever experienced. “Disappointment” as a description would be an understatement. Disappointment was magnified by fear, confusion, disillusion, grief, loss, hopelessness, despair that day. Hopes and dreams and even faith had been betrayed in the garden, slandered in the courtyard and slaughtered on the cross. That first Sacred Saturday was the lowest day of low days.

To be fair, our ancient faith family members had never experienced Easter. We can empathize with their grief. They had hung everything on the promises of a dead man.

But we have more to work with than that. We should know better. We have known Easter over and over again; we all have personal Easter stories. We have had resurrection right next to us, and throughout our history for thousands of years.

Lingering in disappointment denies the resurrection. Languishing in disappointment denies His work outside our line of vision.

For us, there is another option.

We can take the reality of the broken, the lost, the incomplete and frame it instead with anticipation.

Instead of “if only…” we can sing songs of “What if…” The “I can’t wait!” shows up and begins to dance with “Guess what’s coming?!?!” Sunshine reflects glitter and diamonds off ordinary window glass and the high sheen of polished chrome reflects fireworks while toe tapping music wafts around the corner.

We KNOW the story isn’t over, that something incredible truly is coming. Anticipation means we live with a drumroll instead of taps.

My favorite story of anticipation was when that option was pursued by a past-his-prime husband who had been promised the impossible – a biological son.  When the promise was only that -a promise – he could have wasted away focusing on statistics, historic reality and the scorn of those who knew better.

But instead, he fired Eeoyre, the droopy, gloomy, disappointed donkey, so that there would be room on the stage for hope – and trust – and anticipation. Facing the choice between disappointment and anticipation, Abraham believed God who “calls into being things that are not.” And without faltering he faced the facts and did not waver regarding the promise, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He promised. (Romans 4:17-24)

Facing our facts is good. But we can only bring those facts into clear focus by remembering who our God is. Then our Here-and-Now will be framed by the anticipation of the Yet-to-Be.

When we are living out of the overflow of friendship with God, in communion with His Spirit, we enjoy a life content in waiting for what He is doing -beyond what we can imagine.

“Love can wait endlessly. I am willing to wait for Him; I wait in certainty that He will come.”

Oswald Chambers

We can be steadfast in contented waiting when we focus on His love for us. He will come.

His will WILL be done.

Sacred Saturdays will come. When the broken isn’t’ fixed and the lost isn’t yet found and the wounds aren’t healed and the tomb is still closed. When we are called to waiting, to yearning, to longing, to trusting.

May we take the lesson of waiting with anticipation, which we know from Sacred Saturday, into the rest of our year.  May we wait with a clear recall of Easter. May we NOT be a disappointed people.

Disappointment and anticipation are both acknowledgements that the story isn’t finished yet. Which one to carry with us? Choose wisely so that disappointment is smothered and hope overflows. Anticipate!

Hope differed makes the heart sick but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13;12

When we live in anticipation, we live abundantly. Chances to practice anticipation are all around us. Watch for it – practice it – don’t miss it!

ringing a doorbell, opening a letter,

boarding a plane, brewing hot tea

watering garden sprouts, setting an alarm,

reading a menu, decorating the table,

filling the bird feeder, pruning the fruit trees,

addressing an invitation, getting a haircut

Can you hear it? the oven timer, a message beep, the starting buzzer of the game, an introduction, a musical overture

Enjoy it!

a nest in a bird house

a baby shower

the day the cast comes off

a baby’s first steps

unripened blackberries

Anticipation! Reliving our Sacred Saturdays with Easter in view!

What will remind you to practice anticipation?