As we near the close of Holy Week, I gave thought to traditional Easter celebrations. Our Savior’s sacrifice is commemorated on Good Friday. Families will gather and give thanks for Resurrection Sunday. Yet, the Silent Saturday between the two is barely acknowledged.
Our lives consist of more Silent Saturdays living between misery and miracle than anything else. These dark spaces can leave us wondering why, when, and how? The mindset of most people is to work toward an end point. We work to graduate or get a job. Then we may work toward finding a partner or a home. Later, retirement looms on the horizon and we work to live long enough to enjoy it. Current culture focuses on the destination, but life is a journey. It is the highlights and low points that change us along the way.
The times in life that shaped my character are the times I sat in silence. I’ve been in the dark awaiting diagnoses and therapy options. I’ve been in the dark as I entered a new phase in life. Matters of life and death closed around me while I listened for God.
But through my trials, there were times when God was silent. I felt alone, separated from the Light. Yet, what I felt and what was true are not the same. If God did not deny his own Son—refusing to take that cup, a brutal crucifixion, away from Jesus—how can we complain when God doesn’t answer our pleas?
We grow in the dark. Like a seed planted deep in the earth, silent growth precedes the breakthrough. Our dark times teach us compassion, empathy, and make us resilient. God permits things we believe will destroy us. However, His Light eventually breaks through. Our dark places force us to stop and recognize the glory of God.
Learn to appreciate the Silent Saturdays of life. Acknowledge them. Respect other individuals as they sojourn in theirs. As Christ transformed in the dark, so much so that those dearest to Him did not recognize their friend, we do too.
Embrace the silence.
Lilka Finley Raphael 
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