I’ve been saving this for you since February. It’s been waiting on a marked page, typed words with blue ink lines underneath, all to remind me to share it with you when the time is right. Today, Good Friday, seems to be it. In the quoted words below, sense is made of our draw to the suffering Jesus.
Think of your own suffering — within your family and with other relationships — the tough stuff going on this very moment. It is not all for naught. A new day is coming; one crisp and green and filled with hope. But first, we must enter into the suffering. How else can we ever truly appreciate the green when it arrives? How can we feel the vibrancy and life of spring if not for the dark winter that precedes it?
But now, from the words of Heather King, the writer with whom I began the Lenten journey, author of Redeemed (p.1):
“I love a good statue of Jesus with a hole ripped in his chest and his sacred heart hemorrhaging blood. Nobody knew better than Christ that people to whom everyday things like holding a job or interacting with another human being are never-ending sources of torture and anxiety are exactly the ones most in need of healing. A guy who hung out with lepers, paralytics, the possessed: this is someone I can trust. We don’t have to go up to him, he comes down to us. We want a doctor, a hospital, meds; he gives us himself. We want to stop the suffering; he says, I’ll suffer with you.“
We were never promised a life without suffering, but we will never be abandoned.
Peace to you…
Wonderful Good Friday Post..:)