Our definition of ‘good’ is different from God’s. ‘It was the Father’s good pleasure…to reconcile all things to Himself…through the…cross.’ Carolyn Arends writes: ‘During a jubilant Easter service, our pastor said something that stopped me in my mental tracks: “The world offers promises full of emptiness. But Easter offers emptiness full of promise.” Empty cross, empty tomb, empty grave clothes…all full of promise. If I were writing the Easter story, I don’t think I’d choose emptiness as my symbolic gesture. But then, I also wouldn’t be talking about strength being made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9), foolish things confounding the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27), the meek inheriting the earth (Matthew 5:5), or the poor in spirit getting…the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3). And I certainly wouldn’t be talking about dying in order to live [see John 12:24]…I don’t understand the way God thinks. But on those days when I feel hollowed out and broken…it makes me glad to remember that for Easter people, even death is full of promise…I’m writing this…during a particularly long Good Friday season in my own life. My mom is battling cancer, and I’d be lying if I said I was able to…“count it all joy”.…I pray for healing and hope desperately it will come here on earth…I vacillate wildly between…faith and doubt, openness, and bitterness. But…we do not suffer alone, because the God of the universe wore our skin and died our death and removed its sting forever…And even when I’m…sad, I look at my mom and remember: without Good Friday, there would be no Easter morning. So, I pray through the night, and I wait for the resurrection.’

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.