Good Friday

Good Friday is by far the most important religious holiday we observe, as Lutherans. At least to me. For me it is not so much what Christs death means or the promise it holds. It is, again for me, the acknowledgement- as we walked the Stations of the Cross while the sun set, that I too would have fallen asleep that last night- even as He asked for me to wait with Him. That I too, would have denied Him, would have not stepped forward to help bear His Cross, would have watched silently as He was taunted,and would have turned away, lost- as His lifeless body was placed in a tomb.

So I sat for a few moments after the others left and looked at that Cross , draped in black cloth- to symbolize His death. And it came to me, as I looked up- a thought new to me, but I'm sure shared by many..... I was looking up! Even in His death we look up! Not down, in sorrow- to the earth that will claim all our bodies, even as it did Jesus, But Up, because even in death He was showing us the promise of eternity that death gives.