I haven’t written poetry for a while. I used to love it, but it’s one of those things that I just seem to not have had time/ inspiration for, for a while. But this morning when I woke up I was meditating on the very first ‘Easter Saturday’ and what it would have been like for the first disciples. I imagined them waking up to a day without hope, for they were engulfed in grief and did not yet know the joys that Resurrection Sunday would bring. I wanted to write something about it, and how I can sometimes relate – even knowing the certain joy and victory of Resurrection Sunday, there are times in my life where I feel like certain things are over and there’s nothing I can do. But just like the early disciples who felt useless and could only leave it to God to bring his plan to fruition… even when we feel we are out of options and can do nothing, God is still there: He may be out of sight, but is without a doubt working a miracle on our behalf that will lead to something so much better than we could ever have worked for ourselves.
So I wrote ‘The Day Between’ It’s rough and I daresay when I read it back another day I will find plenty to criticise about it. But for today I hope it expresses everything I was feeling about how even when we come to the end of ourselves, God has a plan and it’s not over. As the title of the poem suggests: what we feel is the end, is usually just the point between coming to the end of ourselves, and God showing His power without our help…
The Day Between
Yesterday was our last day of hope.
Our final chance to pray together, be together, now passed.
Holding out for one last miracle, we watched our Lord hang, bleeding and dying on a cursed cross –
Jesus, come down, come back to us – won’t you let the angels save You?
We believe… we believe You can do anything. Please, for our sakes – save Yourself.
You said you wouldn’t leave us as orphans –
We cannot make it without You… this can’t be the end.
Please don’t die; don’t leave us.
But He died.
All hope gone.
Our Saviour gone, what is left to do? What point in prayer?
There is nothing we can do – He is gone, and we are alone.
No amount of praying, fasting, obeying can change that… what are we to do?
Nothing.
Just rest, for today is Sabbath – the day ordained by God to bless us with rest.
How can today be a blessing?
It is a prison, mocking us with the emphasis that there is nothing we can do.
As we rest, everything is in our Father’s hands.
What a blessing it usually is, to know that He holds our lives and keeps the world turning,
even while we rest.
But today it is a brutal reminder that there is nothing we can do.
We woke this morning to the darkest of days. Our Lord is gone – what are we to do?
Nothing.
For today, and tomorrow, and the rest of time, there is nothing we can do.
Our Lord is gone, and we are facing a future bereft of hope.
Looks like the enemy won – but how can that be?
How can he have the final victory over Jesus, who conquered and cast him out so many times?
Were we wrong? Is God not there?
Even Jesus cried out that God had left Him – has He left us too?
We are alone, and there is nothing we can do.
Wherever Jesus is now, there is nothing we can do to bring Him back –
Just sit in our hopeless uselessness.
Jesus said the temple would be destroyed, but it looks like our leaders destroyed Him.
Of course, He also said He would restore it after three days…
And He said He would give the world the sign of Jonah: brought back after three days in the depths.
He promised He’d come back for us.
Wouldn’t that be something?
Imagine if right now all Heaven’s angels are holding their breath, waiting, knowing it’s not over!
Imagine if He reappeared among us once more – the story not over, the enemy not victorious!
Imagine if He didn’t leave us as orphans!
Imagine if by dying He didn’t save Himself but saved us instead!
Imagine if He conquered death – and sin – without any help from us, but for us!
Imagine if God didn’t need us to do anything but is still going to bring Him back, while we rest…
But how could that be? We saw Him die.
There was nothing we could do to stop it.
And there is nothing we can do to bring Him back.
It’s in God’s hands now.
Rachel Yarworth, Writer 