Good Friday

This Good Friday I will not be attending services at my church. Neither will at least two other good friends of mine. We are all saddened that we cannot observe this moment with our communities. However, as I ruminated on this turn of events this morning it hit me that perhaps Jesus will be seen just as much in our living rooms, our children's bedrooms and our husband's hospital beds as in the music filled gathering places our support systems will be remembering in tonight. Perhaps the communion we will take at dinner tables, in front of medicine cabinets, and through FaceTime will be just as meaningful as the cup and bread served all over the world tonight.

This I also know, my friends and I are not the only ones caring for our sick, our lonely, our brokenhearted. Around the world, thousands of people are missing services tonight to participate in the Service that Jesus died for. Before the first Good Friday, this was impossible. To work alongside the Creator God of the Universe was not even something that had entered human consciousness. To work for Him, to be good for Him, to strive for Him those were available, but to be set free from the power of death and brokenness to enter into the loving work of redemption was unfathomable.

"BEHOLD! I AM MAKING ALL THINGS NEW!"

Tonight our families will celebrate Good Friday in a way that opens our eyes to Jesus. We will touch Him tonight. We will sit by His bedside. We will kiss His face and hold His hands. Our Good Friday will not be an observance of Jesus death, it will be an entering into the Life of the Son of God. Our hope will be in the work of Jesus on the Cross. Our freedom will be in His defeat of death. Our Life will be found in His Resurrection.

To our communities worshiping together tonight; Sing, Dance, Rejoice! What we have in Christ is beauty and joy! What we receive through His death is real, deep and meaningful Life! Lift your voices and your hands to the One who makes us whole. Who heals the sick! Who sets the lonely in families! Who brings us back from the dead! Remember this is the Jesus, the God, the King we offer our lives to! He is still working, He is still healing, He is making all things new!