I need to preface this by saying that one of my greatest pleasures in ministry is "creating" an Easter Sunday experience for others, even though it is lots of work, and even if delegating might be a wise idea... I just kind of want everyone else to have a lovely time and not feel the need to be making it so for others.

So, on the landing outside my flat are two big buckets of flowers.

I have taken lots of craft materials to church, and have a few last minute bits still to purchase.

I have some prototypes and preparations to make during the course of the day.

I have already made a few tweaks to my PowerPoint and may make the odd one to the service detail

This is not "proper" Holy Saturday reflection... or is it?  Is it possible that in the preparing, in the yearning to give the best I can, to help others find meaning and hope is actually very proper indeed?

I will have fun today - I have lovely things to prepare.

I will have fun tomorrow - because there will be good things to share.

That limbo time, between a death and a funeral, when you don't quite know what to do or say or be... I guess in some senses that's what Holy Saturday is about.  Perhaps because my Dad died on the Wednesday after Easter, I remember his death around this time rather than at its true date.  In some sense I re-enter the bizarre blend of routine and restlessness, getting on with it and not knowing what to do... I try hard not to pre-empt what I know tomorrow brings, because actually no-one knows what tomorrow brings.  Like countless ministers and Sunday School leaders, today will be spent on final preps for tomorrow.  For now though, these words...

Holy Saturday:

The

Long

Aching

Empty

Waiting

And

Not

Knowing

If

God's

(seeming?)

Absence

Will

Ever

End...