Genesis 22:1-14
Psalms 22, 40, 54, 95
1 Peter 1:10-20
John 13:36-38 or John 19:38-42
My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?
and are so
far from my cry
and from the
words of my distress? Psalm 22:1
Today
is the most somber day in the Church calendar. We know that the story
continues, however, so we aren't in the same position as Jesus' followers were
on that day. Imagine what devastating emotions they went through after Jesus
died. Everything they had come to believe in and built their lives on seemed to
have disappeared. They felt abandoned and feared what would come to them next;
in their grief and confusion, they forgot God's promises to them.
There
are times in all our lives when we feel that same way. All our prayers seem to
go unanswered and we don't understand why. We are good Christians--we go to
Church, we help the less fortunate, we pray, we are good stewards--but things
aren't going the way we intended. Some change, some event, some loss hits us so
hard that we feel abandoned by God. Answers elude us, nothing we do seems to
change the course of events and we start to doubt our faith. It is in those
times that we are like Jesus' followers after He was placed in the tomb. We
forget that God's promises to us will be kept in God's way and in God's time.
We forget that being a Christian doesn't make life easier.
These
are the events that challenge us to grow, to become more, to expand ourselves
and our faith. God gives us that opportunity, that strength, that courage to go
forward. As our story continues, we see God's promise to us--not that life will
be less challenging but that He is with us to see us through to the next
chapter.
Mary D. Crowe