It isn’t unusual
for me to become emotional during Holy Week as I ponder the price paid for sin.
I can look back over my life and see there are things to be sorry for. I do not
do that often or I can be overwhelmed by memories of things I wish I had never experienced,
choices made that I regret but am powerless to change. We are not given a redo,
but we are given the opportunity to live righteously in the present.
In the book of
Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah says God’s steadfast love never ceases and
his mercies are new every morning. In that, I find hope. Hope that I am never
alone no matter my state of mind. He is present with me in triumphs and in
failures, whether I stumble or succeed. Each day I can rise fresh in the
knowledge he is near and will extend the grace needed to live a life worthy of
the blood shed for me.
My prayer today is
summed up in the words from an old hymn: “oh let me never, never outlive my
love for thee.” The love of God that compelled Jesus to come in the flesh to walk
among us as he journeyed to the cross causes me to bow down and worship. I pray
that I will never take for granted the price paid for my salvation, and never
outlive my love for my Maker and Savior. It is his passion for me that has
brought me to this place in my life, and his grace leads me to my destiny: to
become like Jesus and to live forever in his presence.
When the day arrives to celebrate
the resurrection, I will look back to the empty cross of suffering
and allow it to inform my joy at the sight of the empty tomb of life. The two
are inseparable and will stand throughout eternity as the ultimate symbols of
God’s love for those he created for himself. Because of the cross, I am no
longer judged for my sins and failures. The demands of the broken Law were
nailed to it and death no longer reigns.
That is why it is
called Good Friday.
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