Three Days

"Three Days"

It was a beautiful spring day, and a sense of
peace stayed with me as I left the cathedral
on Easter Monday morning. I paused for a
moment on top of the steps leading to the
avenue, now crowded with people rushing to
their jobs.

Sitting in her usual place inside a small archway
was the old flower lady. At her feet, corsages
and boutonnieres were parading on top of a
spread-open newspaper.

The flower lady was smiling, her wrinkled old
face alive with some inner joy.

I started down the stairs--then on an impulse,
turned and picked out a flower.

As I put it in my lapel, I said, "You look happy."

"Why not?" she answered. "Everything is good."

She was dressed so shabbily and seemed
so very old that her reply startled me.

"You've been sitting here for many years now,
haven't you? And always smiling. You wear
your troubles well."

"You can't reach my age and not have troubles,"
she replied. "only it's like Jesus and Good
Friday...." She paused for a moment.

"Yes?" I prompted.

"Well, when Jesus was crucified on Good Friday,
that was the worst day for the whole world. When
I get troubles I remember that, and then I think of
what happened only three days later - Easter and
our Lord rose from the dead. So when things go
wrong, I've learned to wait three days and somehow
everything gets much better."

She smiled good-bye, but her words still follow me
whenever I think I have troubles... "Give G-d a
chance to help... just wait three days."
Received on Sun Apr 8 08:30:06 2007