Holy Friday

What a day! Not for me but for our Lord and Saviour. I attended our Good Friday service this afternoon...it is also a veneration of the cross. I can't help it...for as long as I have been going, for as much as my mind knows that the real physical event happened 2,000 years ago, my heart breaks and when I go to kiss the feet of Jesus I weep!

Let me tell you a little story....there was a young man who died and went to hell. His pastor, who loved him, went down to hell to see if he could get him moved up to heaven. No luck. The young man's teachers and coach went down. Still no luck. His friends went down and pleaded his case. And again..no luck. Finally, his mother went down, knocked on the door of hell. When the devil opened the door she asked if she could be admitted to be with her son. There is no greater love than that of a mother...ahhhh, but there is....that of our heavenly father! Just as a mother's love for us is so encompassing that she was willing to sacrifice all to be at her son's side so much more is the love our FATHER has for us. He chose humaness. He experienced saddness, rejection, anguish, loneliness, and, yes, pain when at any time he could have chosen differently. He did it for your parents, your children, your friends, your enemies...he did it for you and me!

I gained alot from church last night...think about this. We all wear badges of love. A mother wears spit-up on her shoulder...her badge of love for her baby. Think about the flour sprinkled in a mother's hair and on her apron from spending the day in the kitchen baking her child's birthday cake...her badge of love for her child. How about the grease under a father's fingernails after fixing his young son's bicycle or his older son's car...his badge of love for his son. And don't forget the wedding rings that couples wear...yes, their badge of love for each other. Then what of the cross...that is the badge of our Saviour's love for us. Invision this...Jesus carried a long ladder over to the cross, crawled up the ladder and onto his badge of love for us...THE CROSS! Picturing him carrying the ladder and crawling up onto the cross helps to remind me that it was deliberate...purposely done...as he mounted those stairs he could have turned back at any time. But, no HE CRAWLED onto that cross deliberately and purposely so that he could wear that badge of love for us! For me, no words adequately describe the depth and breath of his love for us. I just know it is there, how big it is and how grateful I am for such a gift. Not just for myself but for my children, my siblings, my parents, my friends and yes, even my enemies.

So, tonight I am a little quieter than normal, a little meeker, a little more reflective, a little more poignant...on the other hand I am overflowing with thankfulness, gratitude, and honor. But most of all I am feeling definitely loved!

Happy Easter to all! Rejoice and declare his holy name...