How Long....How Long?

He is Risen. Oh, what a reality I am trying to grasp.

I love this: The Church fathers taught that the door to Paradise had been locked up with Adam and Eve's sin. A few (Enoch, Moses, Elijah) slipped through by grace but death had the victory. And then this when Jesus said "It is finished": The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;…(Matthew 27:52). And then 1 Peter 3 which the disciples taught meant that He descended to hell and preached to the dead and they were given the chance to receive grace. I'm counting on grace.

I'm counting on it for the little things. The hard week of schooling my children who will not pick up anything in their rooms despite threats. Frayed nerves led me to check out tuition costs this year and then they melted my heart with their excitement at the curricula coming in for next year. Spring fever...we can make it through. We can smile.

I'm banking on it for the big things. The friend who died this week of a heart attack and left behind a little girl and an elderly mother. For 6-year old Noah diagnosed this week with bone cancer and his three siblings, parents and extended family trying to balance life with the unknown. For people far away mourning the loss of loved ones' whose lives were taken in one reckless moment in Afghanistan by a crazed gunman. By a world saying, "How Long?" How long until our hope is visible? How long until the suffering ends? How long until the reality I believe in is made visible?

It is this kind of night. How long?