During this Saturday of Easter weekend I pondered the thought of what the day between Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection represented. I thought of how it relates to the rest of the year and our whole lives, really, even if you consider yourself outside of the spiritual realm or are not really a person with a religious faith. To me, that’s one of the things that makes the Bible so relatable and the perfect rulebook for life.

Friday was a day of sorrow. But for those of us who are Believers, we know the story. We know that Sunday is coming. And Sunday was a day of great joy for all mankind. But what about Saturday? No one really thinks about that too much because we’re all waiting for Sunday.

Let’s use the Christian story of Easter as a metaphor for our own individual stories. We can use Good Friday as a metaphor for people who live in the past and Resurrection Sunday as a metaphor for people who live for the future.

I used to be someone who lived for future events instead of living for the day I was given. “I can’t wait to go on that vacation.” “I can’t wait to find my husband.” “I can’t wait ‘til I’m a mom.” “I want that job so bad; I hope I get it.” And then after you get that job – “I can’t wait to get off work Friday.” And then, “I can’t wait to retire.”

But do you realize that most of our lives are spent waiting? In moments. What comes next? Just like Easter Saturday.

There are numerous “third-day stories” in Old Testament Scripture that are a recurring pattern. The first day is filled with trouble and on the third day is deliverance from that trouble. But what’s going on Saturday during the waiting? And the problem with third-day stories, as a former pastor of mine would say, is that “you don’t know it’s a third-day story until the third day.”

Saturdays can be filled with doubt, pain, silence, and broken dreams. But in the midst of this, we have choices. We can choose to believe that this is as good as it gets, and that Sunday will never come. Or we can choose joy in the midst of our doubts, pain, silence, and broken dreams. We can dream NEW dreams. We can live in the moments within each day that we’re given and find something about which to be grateful.

So then, if Friday is about the past (our sins, our disappointments), and if Sunday is about the future (an eternal promise), is Saturday about living in the present? The Saturdays of life can seem mundane sometimes. But Saturday is important because it can be a time of transformation while we’re waiting. And I think that to make our story complete, we need to have the experience of all three days – a trinity, if you will.

I believe that rather than being earthly bodies who have a spirit-soul inside of us, we are souls living in earthly bodies. Jesus’s story wasn’t over on Saturday. And neither is ours.