They walked along the road, heads down. The dust swirled around their legs like a mist. The crushed gravel and sand, heated by the midday sun, seeped into their sandals. One sucked in a deep breath. Maybe if he verbalized the anguish in his heart, it would ease the pain. “I can’t believe he’s gone. I thought surely he’d perform a miracle. I mean, he was supposed to be the Messiah, right?”
Cleophas, his traveling companion raised his gaze to the rocky field, dotted here and there by dwarfed trees. In the distance, a shepherd called out.. Small bumps of white became animated, bleating and rushing to the sound of his voice.
“I followed him. All that time, I believed he was the One.” His Adam’s apple bounced hard as his eyes began to glisten. “Then all the soldiers. The blood. The agony. Why did he do nothing and just endure it? ”
“And now someone has stolen his body?” The first man kicked a stone in the path. “Sacrilege. Why do that?”
“The women said an angel told them Jesus wasn’t there.” Cleophas shook his head. “I wish he was here now to explain it all to us. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Both stopped. Their eyes scanned the landscape. Another man approached, his face half-hidden by a cloak.
“Where did he come from?”
Cleophas shuddered. “I don’t know. He just…appeared. ” He clenched his fist. “We should use caution. He may know we were some of the ones who followed Jesus.”
The story continues in the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus walks with them, talks with them, and teaches them. But, at last when He breaks bread with them, their “eyes are opened.” They recognize their Lord when he repeats what He’d done previously in their presence.
Are we not the same way? Often we are so tied up in our circumstances, we cannot see God right there beside us. Our human emotions become like blinders on a carriage horse. Then, wey sense His wisdom in another’s voice, in a song that comes on the radio right when we need to hear it, or a bird singing. Maybe a Bible verse jumps off the page. That is when Our Lord breaks through. He sparks our memory of what He has done for us in the past. Suddenly, our spiritual eyes are opened to His presence. Wow, Christ orchestrated that, didn’t he?
Holy chills tingle up our arms. Humbly, we crumble to our knees.
God is with us, and He cares.
Where Did You Find God Today? 
Yes, He is and He does care…He loves us with a love we cannot comprehend…yet.
DiAne
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Julie your words are so descriptive of the scene and their emotional turmoil they must have felt. Our expectations of how “We think” God should respond to our prayers, can shake our faith until we invite Him to stay and sup with us, Daily grant us the eyes to see and the heart to trust “His Answers!”
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