Good Friday

To a broken God

Didn't see You there, didn't know You were weeping too

I thought of tears as a human wound

Though of course You care, You have shown You were human too

They say You cried at Lazarus' tomb

I was unaware how it is with a broken God

I thought of You as above my pain

Lost in my despair, so it is with a broken heart

I never dreamed You could feel the same

Once in a magazine I saw a face

Wrinkled up in grief and travailed grace

I kept looking to that face,

some sad refugee in some sad place

And in his eyes the sorrow of our race

Then I saw it was the face of God, the face of God,

Your face, dear God.

Some say You're not there, just a myth for a lazy life

An artifact from an ancient scroll

But I have known You there in the gift of a weary sigh

Lord of the lost and lonesome soul

I was unaware how it is with a broken God

I never dreamed You could feel the same

Christ suffers with us and for us. Our sins are fully dealt with on the Cross, reconciling us with God, the source and goal of all human desires. Yet, more than that the Cross reminds us that in our pain and suffering, in the life we live this side of the kingdom that is to come.........God in Christ suffers with us, always enfolding us in his love and compassion. There are pains this side of heaven that do not go away completely. But nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. And perhaps our (small) sufferings invite us to enter the "fellowship of sharing in Christ's sufferings....becoming like him in his death....and so to know the power of his resurrection"

(Paul's prayer in Philippians 3: 10).

We do not go out to look for suffering. The cross will intersect our lives at some point. When it does may it lead us ever closer to our Beloved Lord who has been there himself, and who comes as our companion on the journey through darkness. He has shown us that the dawn will come.