Easter Saturday - Rediscovered

Today is Easter Monday.  When I was a kid, all I knew was it meant a day off school.  So I loved Easter Monday.  Today we are doing school because it is going to be a short week as we're heading out of town at the end of the week, so my kids won't know Easter Monday the way I did.  However, what I am learning is that you can, perhaps should put the word "Easter" in front of each day of the week, so tomorrow is "Easter Tuesday"!  We shouldn't have just a few days set aside to celebrate what the Lord did for us, it should truly be "Easter" in front of every day of the week.

We ended up celebrating as a family on Easter Saturday this year.  At first some of my kids were a little upset about that as it wasn't technically on "Easter".  But on the morning of our get-together, I started to do some reading about why Saturday was in fact a really significant day to celebrate it together. 

On Friday, the disciples had watched Jesus die and then on Sunday they found out about His resurrection.  On the Saturday, they were right in the middle, not knowing what was ahead and potentially stuck in the sadness of what had just happened.

I read about John.  He had been at the foot of the cross and watched Jesus die.  It must have been so confusing for him.  Then, though he and the disciples could have left town and were even perhaps thinking of it, they stayed together, albeit in locked rooms as they were worried for their lives.  On Sunday morning, when the women found the tomb empty, they were easily able to locate John and Peter who rushed to the tomb as well.  Though they had just gone through two terrible days, they were able to experience the resurrection miracle first hand.

Celebrating on the Saturday suddenly became this amazing opportunity for me to think in a similar way, to live in a more hopeful way.  Instead of being stuck in "Friday" and all that confuses me about situations we find ourselves in sometimes, I feel like the message of Saturday is to stay close to Jesus and trust Him for His miracle-working power of Sunday.  He can take the confusion of Saturday and even though it can feel like a wilderness, it doesn't have to be.  In light of the resurrection it can now be an exciting time of anticipation

I had never thought of Saturday that way before and never will again.  I absolutely loved celebrating it on the Saturday, the middle day, the day where no one knew what was going to happen.  Somewhere it is described as Holy Saturday.  I couldn't agree more.