Good (God) Friday

This day, Good Friday, comes once a year. For Christians it’s the day, even to the hour, that changed the world forever. I’m posting three small bits that I hope you will find edifying if you are one of those Christians, as I am. Have a wonderful Easter. May its joy fill your heart.

This is a short devotional I wrote several years ago.

Thought for Today: “who wants all men to be saved. . .”  I Timothy 1:4 (NIV)

Looking around it sure seems like the end of all things can’t be too far off. Think of the books and movies that present end-time scenarios for anxious believers to gobble up. Now think about Good Friday.

Judas’ betrayal, a horrible burden for anyone to bear, was no worse than the betrayal of the crowd. Pilate asked them to choose between Jesus and Barrabas. They could have undone Judas’ betrayal by calling for Barrabas. But they cried instead for the death of one whose kind face, miracles and teachings many of them had witnessed. But suppose the crowd had called for Barrabas? Jesus might then have signaled his holy angels, taken the crown of kingship and glorious day of the Lord would have come…but without you. Or me.

Good Friday is sometimes called God Friday because on that day God acted. God’s perfectly woven tapestry of the story of Earth isn’t over. Your life and mine have yet to be threaded through its beautiful fabric. 

A Poem

Mary Speaks

By Susan Sundwall

Oh, day of awful darkness

when I cried unending tears,

the very thing I dreaded most

now haunted all my fears.

Where could my lovely child be,

my Savior and my Son?

Who sought to wrench his life away;

what foul thing had He done?

With Peter, James and brother John,

I hid myself away;

as all around a cosmic roar

defined the wretched day.

I did not know where He had gone;

my world was torn apart.

Perhaps I’ll only have Him now

in the cradle of my heart.

And finally this by S.M. Lockridge. It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.

Image: Free Digital Photos