What’s Good about Good Friday?
As I have said many times before, I often need a nudge or smack in the head to help me realize what is right in front of me. It is fitting that this year is my turn to write on Good Friday because I didn't always see the good in this special day.
Twenty years ago on Good Friday, we were burying our oldest daughter Mackenzie. It was a beautiful, light spring day, but it was dark. Dark in the sense that we were suffering such a profound loss and truly unsure of what to do next and so unsure of what was next. We didn't know why a perfect pregnancy could end in such a tragedy. I remember being at Duffy's Funeral Home with Matt and Rick. They let us come up early to get her dressed and wrap her in a blanket. It was one motherly thing I could do before she was buried, which was important to me because I didn't feel like I had done anything motherly. I needed to mother her. I needed to be in her presence. I needed to reflect on the goodness of her, on the goodness of her life but also her death. The 9 months I carried her and grew to love her and now the eternity of life without her was overwhelming, but I had hope. As hard as that time was and sometimes still is, I would not change anything if it meant the good that I have lived these past 20 years wouldn't exist. Sometimes we suffer before we can rejoice.
Good Friday is the day Jesus died and suffered for our sins. Is it good that Jesus seems to leave behind all of His followers and to pass on into the next life without them? The good thing is we know He is coming back. We know the rest of the story. God has laid out what we need to do to be with Him forever. Jesus died for our sins, but He returns for our eternity. I know we are all suffering in our own way, and it is hard and very often life seems unfair and cruel. But on this Good Friday think about Jesus and what He did for us. Despite the losses we each suffer, be thankful to have known great love and to know our Father's unconditional love through all of our joys and sorrows. Have a blessed Easter.
