Sit, wait, wonder

It was Thursday at 1am and Candace came running to the bedroom shrieking and pleading for me to help with the dog. Wrigley, our dog, had come to the back door with a opossum in his mouth. Not exactly the cleanest of critters for him to bring to us, but it didn't surprise me as the neighbors had warned us of a sighting a few weeks ago.

On crutches, I was pretty useless in dealing with this problem (removing the opossum and cleaning the dog) so I suggested that Candace give the dog a bath and get me the video camera so I could film the opossum for a few minutes to see if he would rise up from his charade and scamper off the deck. I pulled up a chair and turned on the camera. There I would sit, wait, and wonder. Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting by the back door and losing hope that I would witness the success of one of nature's most interesting defense mechanisms. Finally, I went to bed knowing the fate of the opossum.

Early the next morning, the opossum was still there as my father-in-law stopped by to dispose of our dog's catch in a sealed trash reciptical. The opossum's strategy backfired. Wrigley didn't walk away from him and he wasn't able to come to life and climb the spruce to safety.

As I reflected on my fifteen minutes in front of the back door, I thought of Christ's ressurrection. After countless times of Jesus warning his closest friends and followers of what he had to do, you would have thought that a few of them would still have hope of his return. Instead, his disciples were scared and bewildered following the crucifixion. And even after Christ rose on the third day, it took some convincing on Jesus' part so that the disciples would believe he was really alive.

Isn't it great that we don't have to sit, wait, and wonder? Jesus is alive! And so is our hope - because of Him. Too often I take for granted my hope for the future. I watch the news and read the paper and shake my head. But in the end, I am not worried because my future is secure. I don't have to sit, wait, and wonder if things will get better. All because Jesus did rise again.