EXPECTING “GOOD THINGS” FROM GOD (Saturday, April 20)

EXPECTING “GOOD THINGS” FROM GOD
(Saturday, April 20)

“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world (ὁ εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἐρχόμενος).’” (Jn 11: 23-27)

“Yes,“ I respond with Martha today, I do believe that You, Lord, are the One “who is coming into the world,“ – also into our world today, bringing New Life, – as we prepare to celebrate Your resurrection. Let me note that this positive expectation of, and looking forward to, “the One Who is Coming,“ specifically our resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ, is a basic, Christian attitude, which we express in the Creed: “I look for/expect/yearn for the resurrection of the dead (Προσδοκῶ ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν / Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum / Чаю воскресения мертвых).“ As a Christian, I am always invited to expect good things “coming“ to me, in the New Life that Christ brings, rather than live in dread of some doom-and-gloom lurking around the corner.

So let me embrace faith today, and cast out fear, by re-connecting with my ever-“coming“-into-my-life Lord, Jesus Christ. As Orthodox Christians celebrate the raising of “a certain man, Lazarus,“ from his tomb today, and other Christians already observe the great silence of Holy Saturday at the Lord’s own Tomb, let me let my good Lord fill me with His kind of hope, of New Life “coming“ to all of us – and also “upon those in the tombs, bestowing life (καὶ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς μνήμασι ζωὴν χαρισάμενος / и сущим во гробех живот даровав).“ 

(A blessed Lazarus Saturday, or Holy Saturday, to all of you zillions out there! You know, you can get these daily reflections via EMAIL, simply by typing in your email-address at our beautiful website, so do that here: coffeewithsistervassa.com).