The account of how Jesus appeared to two disciples on the lonely road to Emmaus is one of the most poignant stories in the Bible, and reminds us of the Easter message that no matter who we are or what lonely path we tread, there is always a presence waiting to join us. The poet Fay Inchfawn expressed it like this:
When days are short and nights are long;
when wash-day brings so dull a sky
that not single thing will dry.
And when the kitchen chimney smokes,
and when there’s naught so queer as folks!
When friends deplore my faded youth,
and when the baby cuts a tooth.
While John, the baby last but one,
clings round my skirts till day is done;
and fat, good-tempered Jane is glum,
and butcher’s man forgets to come.
Sometimes I say on days like these,
I get a sudden gleam of bliss.
Not on some sunny day of ease,
He’ll come …. but on a day like this!