The Magic of Three Days

By Patt Barnes

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, I 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—our Lord arose 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 God a chance to help. Wait three days.”