Good Friday


 After a long, cold and dark Lent, we've reached Good Friday.  I still have challenges with understanding why it is "good," but that's me.  For Christians around the world (and that includes me), it is a reminder of a dark day.  The day that Jesus, without any due process, was crucified and died.  What was his crime?  He cared for sinners and outcasts.  He was kind and listened to those not like him.  He ate with the lowest of the low. (You know tax collectors!)  He called for his followers to be compassionate and to care for others.  (Yes, I'm going back to one of my favorite verses:  Matthew 25:  31-40.)  And yet in doing this the angry mobs called for his death.  A man who preached love was hated.  

I know I am no religious scholar.  I know that I've oversimplifying it all here, but...

For me, Good Friday is a reminder of a darkness that filled man's hearts.  A darkness that I try (and, if I am to be honest, often fail) to keep out of my own.  Because hate is a poison that kills our souls, even as we expect it to cure the ills that we despise.

Good Friday is a dark day.  Yet, as I look outside, the sky is blissfully blue and the sun warms the earth.  I am grateful for that.  I feel like I have been stuck inside for far too long.  That there has been too much darkness.  However, today a dark day in history, I see hope.

I wander outside to my backyard.  I feel the warmth of the sun and I feel...good.  I look around me and out of the earth I see bits of green.  Plants and flowers that are peeking out of the dirt and reaching for the skies.  Barren branches that show shoots of growth.  New life is beginning.  (Even though I don't know what some of that new life is!  I've got to take some photos and use Google lens to figure out what is going on in parts of the yard.)

For me it's a reminder and a blessing that though there is darkness, there is also light.  While we must face dark times, there is always the hope of light.  That hope lies within us.  We need to let it shine in us and through us.  (Or to return to Matthew again:   “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.")  Or to quote a contemporary poet:  "When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it." (If you don't know, it's from Amanda Gorman's poem, "The Hill We Climb")

On a dark day in history, I am anxious to step out into the sunshine.  Not to ignore the darkness of the past (or even the present), but to move forward into the light.  To embrace the light and share it.  To encourage.  To spread.  To hope.  To care. For by doing such, we and all those living around us, can flourish and grow.  


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