Who could forget her story! As the London Guardian wryly observed, "Whatever faults Maria D'Antuono may have, wasting time is not among them."

The 98-year-old woman was one of the few survivors to be pulled from the rubble of a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck central Italy. For thirty dark and interminable hours, she lay trapped beneath the ruins of her home, not far from the L'Aquila epicenter. But they found her! And as the elderly woman was carried to safety amidst the cheers of the onlooking crowd, someone asked her what she had done to pass the hours while waiting and hoping for rescue. "Why, crochet, of course!" Her world comes down around her—but the 98-year-old matriarch survives with a hook, a ball of yarn and a heartful of hope.

Not even an earthquake can bury hope!

"There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it" (Mt 28:2). His enemies could have piled a thousand Mt Everest on top of the garden tomb of Jesus—but it would have made no difference. For not even an earthquake can bury hope. And when Christ came striding out of that quake-shattered crypt and declared over the pre-dawn rubble, "I am the resurrection and the life!" then humankind's last hope was made forever secure. Death may bury us. But in the power of the risen Savior hope can still be resurrected.

So what is it that has you trapped beneath the rubble of your broken dream this Easter? Is it your schooling, buried with late papers, overdue reading reports, skipped quizzes— and now there seems no way out? Financially, is it debt crushing the life out of your hopes?  In heart matters, is it the loss of a friendship, the spurning of a love that has sucked away your hope?

Whatever weighs heavy on you right now in this season of the Resurrection, whatever you do, don't repeat the computation error of the eleven disciples. In their dismal hopelessness that woeful Saturday night, they totally forgot to calculate something called omnipotence—divine omnipotence—into their dark crisis. And so needlessly (and that's easy for you and me to say, I realize), they suffer on through two dark nights without a ray of hope.

But, as the song sings, "then came the morning!" And in an explosion of light and glory and with the tread of a Conqueror, the dead and buried One strides onto the stage of Forever—a divine guarantee that no matter how heavy the stone that entombs us, the risen Christ can yet roll it away!

So put your finger on this Easter promise and face your uncertain future with new hope: "God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams" (Eph 3:20 Message). And remember: "As you ask the Lord to help you, honor your Savior by believing that you do receive His blessing. All power [omnipotence], all wisdom [omniscience], are at our command. We have only to ask" (Ministry of Healing 514).

So why not ask Him . . .  and crochet while you wait . . . with hope.