Darkness

When I was a little girl, age 8 or 9 maybe, I remember asking my mom what the term "Good Friday" meant. We had heard about it in church the week before and I didn't quite grasp the meaning that we'd call the day that Jesus died, "GOOD Friday." I remember that good Friday it was dark and rainy and very cold. My mom told me it was because all of heaven was crying in rememberance of that day.

I don't know how the world withstood the death of its own maker...I really don't. We didn't just kill the man we knew as Jesus that day - we killed God. How does the world keep turning when something like that happens? It's beyond my comprehension.

I was mentoring a woman this past year who told me she simply could not believe that Jesus actually died or that he actually rose again from the dead. It seemed too far fetched to her. I told her to join the club...that it took me the better part of my life to finally have faith enough to believe that this inconceivable act actually happened. I didn't really have any words of wisdom for her except to explain how the soldier slid the sword beneath his ribs, ensuring he did actually die. How the two men really did prepare him for burial and then layed him in a sealed tomb. She just stared at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I know...I know...it seems absolutely unbelievable...

And yet...

God is alive now, today, inside my heart. How could God have died on the cross and and now be alive if He didn't find a way to conquer death? It is the ultimate mystery and the ultimate gift, all rolled into one. The hows and the whys are beyond my comprehension but not the gift of His love...that part I understand loud and clear.