How He Loves Us

"...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5:8

As with every Good Friday, we put our cross out this morning and thanked God for the ultimate gift...a sacrifice that is even more unfathomable now that I am a parent, feeling the love of a mother that is like nothing I'd known before...Jesus, our sacrificial lamb, slain for our sins.  We remember it on this sorrowful day, but we have hope as we look toward Sunday when will celebrate that He is Risen!

Today we read about Jesus' arrest, torture and death on the cross and about his burial in the tomb - sealed with a stone, guards placed in the front to assure that the disciples wouldn't steal his body.  For everyone knew the promise he'd made to rise in 3 days, and they were going to make sure no one made them a fool by taking the body and staging a scene that was unimaginable.  A missing body.  An empty tomb.

But we know.  That stone and those guards couldn't stop the Living God.  His power cannot be measured.  And as we will see on Sunday, He is very much alive.

After the story, we took some crepe paper and sealed off our front room just like the tomb was sealed with the stone.  My kids love tape, so they thought this idea was pretty cool...

(Can't you just see the 16 year old version of her making that exact same face.)

Today we remember that his body was broken for us.  Broken and placed in a sealed, guarded tomb.  Before looking to Sunday when he overcomes that, let the pain and loneliness of his death sink in.  He did that for you.  He died for you.