Colour Supplement

Articles by Christians around the world

Sunday 20 April 2008

 

What a nightmare it was...

a letter from Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church

 

 

How often do we use that phrase when things have gone wrong. Yet, a nightmare is a dream which causes a strong unpleasant emotional response from the sleeper, typically fear or horror, or the sensations of pain, falling, drowning or death. I had one recently and I woke in tears. Yet, that was tame when you consider what the disciples went through from Palm Sunday up to and including Easter Day. No wonder the couple who set out for Emmaus in the afternoon were so full of grief that they didn’t recognise Jesus walking beside them. Of course they didn’t - he was dead wasn’t he? (In Luke’s gospel nobody had yet seen the risen Lord.) It’s only once they all sit down together to eat and Jesus breaks the bread that the two recognise him and are filled with light. What a storyteller Luke is: two people set out in the light yet full of darkness, then return in the dark full of light.

 

Can life be like that for us? I believe so. At St Andrew’s, there is grief because three beautiful members of our congregation have died recently. There are some people who grieve for other reasons - some are lonely, or have health or money worries. Jesus often draws near to reassure us, though we may not see him in the friend who sits with us or does the ironing when we have been bereaved, the neighbour who calls by to fill an empty afternoon, the doctor who suggests that a new treatment might relieve our condition, or the debt counsellor who shows us how to deal with the financial situation. Every day, small miracles are worked, but how often do we recognise them?

 

I pray that we all may see Jesus more often and find that our dark places will be flooded with Resurrection light.

 

Tricia

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