Final Lent Blog

Just a few more hours.

Then you rise.

Anticipation.  Joy.  Celebration.

Emilie and I went for a walk today.   At one point she asked me, “What do you think was going on in Heaven after Jesus died until He rose?”

I pieced together an answer immediately, but I’ve been thinking it over ever since.

Heaven was cringing while you took my stripes and nails, and weeping when you breathed your last.  I believe that.

What I can’t decided is for how long the weeping lasted.  Because they knew.  God, the angels, the saints, they all knew that it was temporary, and that what came next was worth it all.

They knew that the suffering was over, and that your words were true;  “IT IS ACCOMPLISHED!”

I imagine that at some point between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning, even before you rose, that a deafening roar of celebration shook the very foundations of Heaven.  It was a done deal.  Complete certainty.  Every reason to rejoice.

I feel a glimmer of that vast magnitude in my soul tonight.  Anticipation of such intensity that it is difficult to express.

I’ve felt this to some degree for the entirety of this Lenten season; eagerness to get to the empty tomb, and the joy we find there.

But that’s not how you work.  You didn’t fast forward to glory.  You worked, and lived, and suffered, and died.  In the same way, you don’t rush us through struggle.  We spend time on the road to calvary, and at the foot of your cross before we share in the glory of your victory.

But tomorrow the waiting is over.

No more death; only life.

For You.

For all.

You are alive.

You live in me.

Salvation is here.