And at that moment, in that simple gesture, they recognize who he is. Then suddenly he is gone. That's the story of the walk to Emmaus. It's a wonderful Eastertide story. It announces that in the midst of discouragement, even when we are still in shock from something terrible that's happened, even when we don't know the point of anything anymore, new life comes.
New life comes knocking like a stranger at our door.
New life sits down at the table, and offers us nourishment. New life speaks to us, encourages us, gives us hope. And in a transcendent moment we see, suddenly, who it is that is doing this in our midst. The story follows a classic pattern, one that occurs in the Bible again and again, to show us how it comes. They don't visit God.