What He calls Good...

Good... The freewrite word prompt was "Good" and doesn't it just figure! Because here we are again, just days away from Good Friday and oh my how this holy week can cause shifts and longings deep within us!   

As this Holy Week is unfolding and life around us feels chaotic and out of control --from Presidential campaigns to the Brussels attacks to whatever is going on in your own world personally-- ...as pain and agony and desperate prayers rise up, this week - this year --this life... it can feel anything but Good!

Darkness can trick you into thinking that Light doesn't shine there... but oh, the Light - it shifts and bleeds, and filters down to everywhere!

Yes.

When life is hard and the answers are not clear... when the reality of this fallen world weighs heavy on our hearts, let us remember that what we call good and what He calls good are very often not the same thing!

For even on a dark and dreary day, when life has beaten you down, justice and truth are hiding, when even your friends have backed away leaving you to battle on your own, and there is not. one. thing. that you can grab hold of and say, "This is good!" ...Yes, even then -Light filters through and God lays down, bleeds out, and in three days, He rises up again.

All the while - through it all, He says, "This is good!"

He saw it from the beginning... 

And He saw it in the Manger,

the Desert, and the Garden... 

He saw it from the Cross,

the Grave, and the Empty Tomb!

He saw you and me... He saw our moments and our days and our lives unfolding, and even in the midst of our trials and temptations... our wars and wounds, He said, "This is good!"

and He sees it ---and says it--- STILL!

It may be 'Friday', y'all... but Sunday's comin'!

I love that He saw --past tense-- and yet it was into our future!  He sees us from the beginning and the end - all of our days, spread out before Him, and even still He says, It is Good! (Read: It will be good! Read: We can trust Him!)

When the days are hard and the nights are long, when our hope feels weak and the enemy, strong --His Light still shines and causes Darkness to flee! His Love still pours out and covers us... protects us... heals us... pulls us closer and invites us to see...

He shows up in the middle of our doubts, proclaiming "Peace!"

Like Thomas, our doubts don't offend Him. No, instead He just invites us --yet again, as always-- to simply Lean In Closer! 

To Touch and to See... 

Those nail scarred hands are the only man-made things in heaven*  --and even in them, violence and darkness didn't win.  

What was meant to hurt Him... to stop Him... to kill Him - only, in the end, allowed Light to shine forth all the brighter... for death to die once and for all, and for resurrection life to rise up eternal.

It's Wednesday, during Holy Week. On Wednesday Judas betrayed Him... and Mary anointed Him.

Let's be like Mary... at any cost, let's purpose to worship Him!

Easter is coming, my friends!

He is Risen!

  (...He is Risen indeed!)

*adapted from an original post published April 2, 2015

P.S. I am linking up with these lovely communities online:

Kristin Hill Taylor for #ThreeWordWednesday

Kelly Chripczuk  for #SmallWonders 

Holly Barrett for #TestimonyTuesday

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

Jennifer Dukes Lee for #TellHisStory