Approaching Easter: Unfinished Glory

PAUSE

As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly, to recenter my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

(pause)

I pray Psalm 130:5, repeating the words slowly, several times:

“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.”

REFLECT

Bible: As we approach Good Friday, we continue today to ask for an eternal perspective on our current sufferings. As the apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:18–19:

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.”

Book passage: I describe the magnificent Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. Designed by the architect Gaudí, under construction since 1882, it:

will eventually incorporate three façades, each articulating a different aspect of Christ’s life. Gaudí, in his generation, created the Façade of the Nativity, ornately exploring and celebrating the birth and life of Jesus. In our generation, the second façade has almost been completed: that of the Passion of the Christ . . . Work is just beginning on the final structure, the Glory Façade . . . The messages of Christmas and Easter tower over us like the first two façades of Gaudí’s basilica. But we await the completion of the story when Christ’s glory will fully be revealed and His temple will be complete.

ASK

Ask myself: How does it make me feel that this little life of mine is being built into something so much bigger and more beautiful than me? Am I looking through the wrong end of the telescope; focusing in on my own little world here and now, instead of the universe of new possibilities to come?

Ask the Lord: Heavenly Father, thank You that my “present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory” to come. That everything I’m going through in this life will be massively outweighed by the blessings that You are preparing for me in the next.

YIELD

The hymn, “When I Survey,” by Charles Wesley:

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God.
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an off’ring far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Amen.