Easter In Italy

Oh we had so many plans! Plans that included us worshipping with other Italian believers in a church where many different people from so many different places would be joined together! I had even imagined that hopefully someone from church might invite us over for an Italian Traditional Easter meal! I know, i get carried away so often with my thoughts! But this Easter was going to be so very special as we had never been away in a different country for Easter! I had even written the church on FB to tell them how excited we were to be joining them today! We left the apartment an hr early to walk to the taxi stand two blocks away! We knew the church was a little over 2 miles away so we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to hail a cab! Because we had been told that taxi service would be a little restricted today because of so many drivers were off, we prayed, asking God to please send us a cab so we would be able to go to church. You would think that that would be one prayer that would be answered, but to our dismay, we were not able to get any taxi! We left after 45 min with a discouraged heart. Why had we not been able to get a ride? we had waited just knowing a cab would arrive, so we knew we would never make it in time if we walked by the time we gave up. Sounds silly but i kept thinking, we are staying at this taxi stand in faith knowing God would provide!

What happened to our perfect Easter plan? We walked away from the taxi stand with a sad heart. As we walked, it would be so easy to allow this disappointment to get me in a bad mood but as we continued to walk an old hymn came to me…

“At the Cross, at the Cross where I first saw the Light and the burden of my heart rolled away! It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day.”

As i sung that song to myself I thought about those words “and now I am happy all the day!” But i wasn’t feeling very happy at the moment. But shouldnt I be? Today was Easter, Jesus Christ is Risen! Should any circumstances cause me to not be happy? Because He lives, we have hope! Because He lives, we can face uncertain days! Because He lives we have eternal life! Shouldn’t these give us cause to have unspeakable joy! We continued to walk and came upon a little pastry/coffee shop where we went in and sat down! We were the only ones there that was not from the neighborhood and the only ones who spoke English! We ordered a coffee and pastry and as we sat there watching and listening, my heart turned to gladness! These were precious people who Jesus died for also! He had put it in my heart, even before we arrived here last thurs, to pray for folks who crossed our paths! In the afternoon Randy and i were walking back from dinner about 7 and we encountered one of the sweet ladies we had seen in the coffee shop. We stopped and talked to her! It was then that i realized that maybe we were suppose to be in that coffee shop this morning exactly when we were! God has laid it on my heart to pray for this lady who we ran into again this evening! Sometimes it takes us not being in church to “be the church”! I am committed to pray for her and ask the Lord to give us another opportunity to talk with her! So I am praying for boldness to share the Good news. She spoke a little English and was such a delight! My heart was full as we walked home! Easter had indeed not been our normal routine, but as we all know, Gods ways are always perfect and maybe, just maybe, God sent our taxi to someone else trying to get to church that needed some hope and encouragement today! Yes Easter was different from our normal Easter, but it was so very special!

And we had delicious Italian Pastries! God is good all the time, all the time, God is good!