What is up with us and Good Friday?
big things seem to happen to us lately on this day. Today, we close on our house. (Did just hear a trumpet sound somewhere because we fInally bit the bullet?)
Two years ago, the tone of the day was quite a bit more somber, and I was reminded that this was but a fraction of a glimpse of what the heaviness of the world might have felt like on the day Jesus was crucified.
The pain and grief we felt as we put our 15-year-old Pug, Whoopi, to sleep, was so heavy. She knew her time had come, and I think she was asking us to let her go. She had been doing downhill for weeks, and I had been traveling, so timing was hard on her, and on us.
But when that day came, and we found our way through the blur of tears to drive her to the vet, one thing remained clear: it was time. She had brought us much joy and laughter (still does), and it was time for all of us to move on.
When you put a pet to sleep, the vet delivers the fine print aout what can happen after the injection has begun to run its course through the diesy. Ours mentioned that it could take up to 2-3 minutes, and that we might be able to feel Whoopi's muscles and nerves twitching as they began to shut down; slowed breathing, eyes blinking blah, blah, blah.
Not 10 seconds into the shot, though, Whoopi was gone.
With no intention of elevating my Pug to any religious status (though it has been known to happen, both to Pug and Mac owners, though that's a separate post), the significance and heaviness of the occasion was so much heavier because of the day, Good Friday.
I can't help but think: What must the world have felt like after Jesus was crucified? The earthquake, the curtain of the temple and the rocks breaking in two, the blackening of the sky. It must have felt like the end of the world. There's little to no mention of the disciples at this point in scripture, but the guilt, the bewilderment of Judas' suicide, and now the crucifixion--overwhelming, to say the least. (Am I like that when the going gets tough--do I just retreat and virtually disappear? Don't answer that...)
The world must have been speechless and terrified all at once. I mean, how do you go about business as usual after something like this? Except for the early responders: Joseph of Arimethea, who dressed Jesus' body, the centurion who worshiped Him and the criminal crucified at His side who asked for His mercy, everyone else had to be paralyzed with fear and uncertainty as to what was next.
Thank God, He finishes what He starts. And the world as we know it--death included--was changed forever. Thankfully, the world is not what it was on that morning and, when God's kingdom comes, it won't be what the world is today.
Mikey's and my new beginning is piddly by comparison, but it is a new beginning: a home which we feel blessed with and led to share with others as a place of shelter, rest, and just plain old relationships that we hope point to the One who loves us all so much.
Good Friday, indeed.