Holy Saturday — In the Middle

You may know the heartache and feelings when one of your closest friends or family members passed away, yesterday. You wake up the day after, and it’s up to you to handle the responsibilities of planning the funeral, the burial, notifying relatives, and figuring out what to do without them.

You are expected to hold yourself together by treasuring the memories, while being courageous and brave when you just want to sit and cry boatloads of tears. Life will never be the same again. You look around, and everyone around you is just fine. They’re laughing, they’re carefree, they’re going on with their busy lives, and you think, “How could they be so happy when I’m hurting so much?”

Today is the in-between day of our Savior’s agony on the cross — one of the cruelest methods of execution ever practiced. His dead body is in a tomb – sealed and done! But then comes tomorrow — Resurrection Sunday — the day when all HELL had to break loose of what it thought was its captive. I hear God saying to us “Hold on, My Children – joy comes in the morning!”

But this day, I’m still fixed on what happened yesterday — fixed on the “Old Rugged Cross – the emblem of suffering and shame”, but most importantly, represents our Savior’s great love for us.

The cross! What once represented an inhumane, torturous death sentence, is now a symbol of love. That’s why I am rarely seen not wearing one of my precious cross pendants or cross earrings or a bracelet that dangles a cross. The cross is my “Statue of Liberty” as one old song proclaims.

While I cherish my “jewelry” crosses as expressions and symbols of my faith, I’m not quite sure I like the cross Jesus referred to here: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to be My disciple, let them deny themselves…and take up their cross.” Matthew 16:24.

When I hear the words, “Take up your cross”, I know He means suffering, opposition, humility, dying to self, staying silent when that’s the last thing I want to do, being a servant to others, and carrying burdens that are often too heavy to bear. But I know without the cross, there are no crown wearers in heaven.

We all must carry our crosses in this life. Doesn’t sound like a ticket to Disneyland, does it? But, it is so much better. It is a ticket to joy, peace, faith, hope and eternity with He Who paid the ultimate price for our salvation. What God offers is the promise that He is with us in our suffering; that He can bring good out of it and that one day He will put a stop to it and redeem it. The cross is God’s way of saying we are not alone in our suffering.

The cross reminds us we have a great high priest Who sympathizes with our sufferings and was tested in every way we have been. The One who provides us strength is the same One who shares His victory with us. When He rises from the grave — so do we!” None of us are without crosses to bear, but all of us have the opportunity to know the Savior Who promises us a FOREVER with Him. It’s not Disneyland, but FOREVER-Land.

Hold on, dear ones, JOY COMES IN THE MORNING!!!