A few years ago I attended a youth retreat that had a profound speaker. Even as a leader, I was taken in by his compelling stories, rhetorical flare, and engaging facial expressions. However, one night about midway through the week, the speaker showed up to the chapel session wearing a pair of sunglasses. Although confused, no one in the audience made a point to question him, instead assuming that his glasses were either a strange fashion statement or a subtle sermon illustration. As it turned out, they were neither. Instead, the speaker described how he normally trims his eyebrows once a week using a small electric razor. This time, however, either due to morning grogginess or too much on his mind, he forgot to put the guard on the razor. The result was one eyebrow completely shaved off. Unsure of what to do, the speaker described how he decided that it would be best to shave the other eyebrow off as well – to make everything even. Already sporting a shaved head, the speaker stood in front of hundreds of students now looking much different than he had on previous nights. A student whispered to me that he looked like a cancer patient. It would take at least two weeks before the speaker looked normal again. One small mistake – one embarrassing consequence.

Although the speaker’s situation was lighthearted and comical, it speaks a truth that many of us know all too well. There are moments – flashes – in our lives when everything seems to change. We cannot predict them. The mundane suddenly becomes monumental. A car accident while driving home; A stolen computer in the library; A severe diagnosis on a routine doctors visit; An injury at a sporting event – everyone has their own story. Sometimes these events are our fault and other times they are not. One mistake – one change – can leave us breathless, wishing that we could go back and do things over again. These events can leave us angry and bitter. After all, they seem inherently unfair. How can one small thing have such large consequences? What kind of justice is that? What kind of God could allow that?

Perhaps the disciples asked similar questions in Matthew 26. Although Jesus had predicted his death multiple times, for whatever reason, the disciples did not seem to comprehend what was happening. As Jesus retreated into the Garden of Gethsemane after the Passover meal, the disciples remained unaware that something monumental was about to take place. They went about business as usual. As Jesus prayed late at night, the disciples, exhausted from their activities, slept. No doubt they had done this many times before. Their sleeping was mundane.

But, in an instant, their lives were changed. Jesus, their Messiah, was snatched from them, “betrayed into the hands of sinners” (Matthew 26:45). The mundane quickly became monumental – and there was nothing that they could do to reverse it. Their hearts undoubtedly sunk. Their spirits were crushed. They were filled with questions – and anger… and so are we.

But the words of Isaiah continue to ring true: “Yet is was the LORD’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief.”

Without that heartbreaking moment – when the mundane became monumental – God could never have brought about his great victory on the cross. It was part of his good plan.

Jesus’ resurrection shows us that one day, the moments that we most wish to reverse, will not only be reversed, but transformed into glory.

The disciples did not know what would come from Jesus’ arrest. To them, it must have felt like the end of the world. The life that they knew was changed forever. But because of that circumstance, God brought about the greatest good that the world has ever seen.

We never know when a mundane moment will become a monumental one. They happen in a flash, and we are unable to undo them. But the good news of the Gospel is that God can use them and transform them for our good. And that is a hope worth clinging to.