Shattered Hopes

This is the first time in my life I have been utterly overjoyed it is Holy Week. Because this week I will not be alone in my mourning. Tears in church will be understood. It is the week of shattered hopes: hopes of those who thought Jesus was here to establish a new earthly kingdom, hopes of those who loved Jesus as a son or brother, hopes of those who loved Him as a dear friend, and hopes of those who believed He was the Son of God. 

But how does the Son of God die? They had to have wondered.

Hopes are shattered every day. Spouses die, jobs are lost, loved ones or even you are overcome with illness...babies go home to heaven before they even take their fist breath.

I'm supposed to be 18 weeks pregnant today. I would be laughing with my husband saying, "Can you believe we're almost half way there?! This baby is going to be here before we know it!" I would have more energy than I did just a few weeks ago and I would be at the only point in my pregnancy where I feel like I'm not fat or shamu, just pregnant. Instead, my womb is empty and my body is reminding me of that fact. Thanks be to God I have a husband that buys me fudge. 

Our Christian brothers and sisters who lived the first Holy Week are not strangers to shattered hopes, to death, and to utter hopelessness. God not only left them, He left them in death. And yet the miracle of it all is that God transcends death, His power goes beyond it, and His followers were sustained.

So this week we mourn for ourselves, as Jesus told the women who followed him weeping to do. We weep and mourn until we have no breath left. We feel all of our hopes shatter and every passed month without our loved ones, without our health, without jobs, without our babies rip out our insides. 

We repent.

And then...we wait.

For Christ is coming as He said.

Thank you Hope Rocks, Anastasia's stone is so beautiful.