Today, at the Foot of the Cross

Happy Good Friday, everyone!  I know, I know, this is the dark, somber, and perhaps slightly awkward part of Holy Week.  It's the day Jesus was crucified as a criminal on a cross, the day He died.  Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him, His own people rejected him, and His disciples thought that it was over and all they had lived for was lost.  Not exactly the kind of day to party about.

But the cool part for us is that we know why it had to be this way.  We know that this was God's plan all along.  This was His divine design to redeem a people who had rejected Him since Eden, because He loves us.  Unconditionally, He loves us.  We can look back and see how every prophecy in the Old Testament about the Messiah that was to come and save the world was fulfilled in Christ's life and death...

And His resurrection.  Because another cool part is this: we know how the story ends.  We know that Christ didn't stop with death, but conquered death, passed through it, and came out on the other side as the Victor, the  Conqueror who lives in us today.

So as I sit at the foot of the cross today, yes, it is somber and painful.  It's difficult to see the Man who loves me with a perfect, flawless, inconceivable love wearing my sin and taking my death.  It's hard to see Him where I should be.  But sitting here at the foot of the cross today, I know that He's doing what I can't do.  I know He is everything I can't be.  He is strong where I am weak, and He has power where I am helpless.

I had a debt that I could not pay on my own.  I should've been found guilty, I deserved death, and I didn't belong in the presence of such overwhelming glory of a perfect God.  But Jesus came in before I even knew Him and said, "I know what she is, I know what she's done, and I know what she owes, but I love her.  I will take her debt, I will cover her shortcomings, and I will take her place."

Oh yes, sitting at the cross today, I know the weight of what happened the day that the Lover of my soul died.  But I also know that I'll see Him again three days from now in the garden, and He'll call me by my name, and even after all of the pain, all of the shame, even death, He'll still love me.  Here at the foot of the cross today, I'm not alone.  I'm not condemned.  I'm not worthless.

I am cared for.  I am redeemed.  I am loved.