Good Friday

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Yesterday, on good Friday, God really blessed me so much. I think I have shared before how profound Jesus' death on the cross is and how much it means to me. To have a day set aside for meditation on such a profound and world changing event is so meaningful. God, came to Earth, shared, taught us to love, and then died in the most gruesome, painful, bloody expression of love and passion that man has ever seen. He took our sins, suffered for them in our place and then his people, we his children, hung him on a tree.

We watched the Passion yesterday. That movie always strikes me so much, if you have not seen it then you should. Passion, strong and barely controllable emotion, that is the definition I found in the dictionary. I wondered why they decided to name it such "The Passion" and then it hit me, that is what it was. It was his strong, uncontrollable love for us that brought him to the tree, that brought him through the whips and spitting and nails. His passion for us. As hard as we look we will never find someone who loves us so much, someone who is so passionate about us that he or she will do what Christ did in the way he did.

One thing that I love about the movie is the impact. Let me explain, when you meditate on a crucifix you are used to seeing Jesus with a few cuts and a little bit of blood, sometimes. When you watch the passion I feel like you get a grasp of how real it all was. He sweat blood, was mocked, was torn and cut, had thorns driven into his head, walked carrying a heavy cross that nearly crushed him three times, and then was nailed to a tree and left to dehydrate and die. That is real. His love is real. His passion is real. God's fervent passion for us is the most real it can get and yet we hardly think about it. I feel that if we each truly meditated on his passion each day our lives would be better, our families would be better, and our world would be better.

God loves you. He loves you so much that he suffered unimaginable pain and humiliation and he did it willingly, to save you. I know it is almost Easter, a season with a feel and message very different from that of lent and good Friday, but we always need to keep that reminder in our hearts and souls. That reminder of his unending love and passion.

Peace and love in Christ,
Alyse