Each day throughout this Lenten journey thus far, I've known that we are working our way towards Easter. Towards Hope. Towards the Resurrection. But now as we are approaching Holy Week, this is beginning to hit me in a different way.
For so long, Easter felt far off. It felt like it was off in the distance somewhere and we would get there eventually. But now here we are. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, and in just a few short days following, we will walk through Jesus being beaten and crucified for our sins. And then a few short days after that, we will walk through Him being raised again, overcoming death and sin forever.
For so long, this journey felt long and drawn out. But now the end is near (which is not really an end but a beautiful beginning). It feels like it is rapidly approaching and even though there is still so much to happen before we reach the end of this 40 day journey together, I am feeling just how quickly this is all happening.
I've seen a resemblance of this in my own life, where for months upon months upon months, it felt like God was moving soooooo slow. And then seemingly out of nowhere, it felt like things started moving at the speed of light. When in reality, God had been faithfully working and moving all along, I just didn't feel it or appreciate it because I couldn't see it. But as I began to see it, as it became real to me, as the end of the journey got closer, I actually began to feel the speed at which God had been working all along.
I wonder if this is how Jesus felt. He had been on earth for 33 years. YEARS. before He accomplished the main purpose of what the Father sent Him to accomplish. I wonder if the first 30 years of His life felt even slower because He was not in ministry yet.
Or I wonder if, because He knew what was coming, He was able to appreciate the seeming slow-moving-ness of it all. I wonder if because He knew that the first 30 years of His life were necessary, He didn't try to rush through them. I wonder if because He was so in tune with the Father, He didn't try to skip ahead to do what He knew would cause people to follow Him.
I wonder if He didn't try to rush ahead to the part of His life with visible fruit and influence, because He was so caught up in abiding with the Father in the mundane. I wonder if He was so content with the Father being pleased by Him, that He didn't care about having any followers at all. I wonder if He appreciated the early stages of His life, before His ministry began, because He simply appreciated being where His Father had placed Him.
There is so much to learn about the life of Jesus. There is so much that He teaches me. There is so much that I think I already know and have figured out, until He gives me a different perspective and shows me that there is always more to know about Him. There is always more to learn.
And in this moment now, He is teaching me to slow down. To pause. To yes, look forward to the Resurrection. Look forward to what is coming. Look forward to the end of this journey and the start of a new one. But also don't lose the joy that comes with each day during the journey, because each day is a gift from Him, wrapped tightly in His goodness.
Though at times it may seem slow, one day we will look up and it will all be over. What feels slow-moving to our hearts and souls, are invitations to come and seek the Holy One. Not for evidence that He is moving, but simply to be with Him.
Jesus embraced the slow. He embraced the mundane. He embraced being a carpenter, even though that wasn't the complete fulfillment of God's perfect will in the earth. He embraced it because it was where the Father had Him. He wasn't rushing to jump into ministry, because He knew that serving God all along was His ministry.
May we be the same way. May our hearts rest, knowing that God has us exactly where we are on purpose for a reason. We can look forward with hope and expectation, but we can also live in gratitude for the day that He has given us now.
May our hearts rejoice in what is to come, but may we also rejoice in what is here now.
He is good, always.
God bless you,
Elisha