Third Day

On the Third Day

an earthquake rocked a garden tomb,

stunned Roman guards,

but spoke peace to weeping women,

Peter and the forlorn followers.

 

It shook Jerusalem’s peasants

with a promise of liberation,

jolted Pharisees

with its signal of fulfilled prophecy,

and took them by surprise

with its challenge to false spirituality.

 

It reverberated in Rome’s highest court

and shattered the consciences

of those in power.

 

Hidden questions were raised:

Is there a more worthy goal than earthly glory?

A more worthy God than Caesar?

 

Unmeasured by the Richter Scale,

it was the quake that cracked a death grip

and its aftershocks reach through time……….to me.

 

I too have had my Third Day

when the power of God

first earthquaked its way through my soul.

 

It shook me then and shakes me now,

but I stand secure

for I know my Redeemer lives.

(E.J. Hatfield)