Blog # 466 Good Friday

Blog # 466  Good Friday

            There are many ways to say "I love you".  One of the ways would  simply be to say the words.  Another would be to send a flower, bake a cake, take someone to a fancy restaurant, or to give a child a piece of candy or a toy.  Other ways to say I love  you would be to say: "I am sorry", or "I forgive you", or  "Would  you like to play tennis this afternoon?", "You are beautiful !", or "Happy Easter !"
             Did it ever occur to you that  another way of saying I love you might be to say: "May you have a  Good Friday"?  Good Friday on the calendar this year was five days ago. It was that for us all, seven billion of us now living on the earth, whether we be  young or old, rich, poor, Christian or not. However there has been a long tradition among believers in Jesus to call the Friday before Easter 'good'.  Among all of the other Fridays of the year this one is singled out and designated 'good'. Why?

             Normally you would think of an experience the day on which your son or your brother died a sad day rather than a good one.  But this day on which we remember and re-experience the death of Jesus is called Good Friday.  Why?  To help you determine the answer, you might refer to the following references in the Bible.  Numbers 21: 49. John 3: 14; John 8: 28, and John 12: 32. 

               If I were to promise to give anyone who sent his or here name and address to me five hundred dollars, the days on which you received the promise and then the money would be experienced by you as good days.  The sad thing in this example is the fact I do not have that much money to give. Then too I might not have as much love for you as it would take to make the promise and give you the money.  But God has infinite goodness power and love!

               There are many ways to say I love  you.  God says I love you to each and all of us constantly and everywhere, in nature, history, the Church, our prayers,  our illnesses, our health, and all the other blessings we can count.  But on top of it all, God so loved the world that He gave his
Beloved Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. ( Jn. 3:16). And the Son loved us so much as to die for us.

                   God, the Best, in Jesus, gives His life.  Everything He has, the most, as an expression of His love.  Like a birthday, an anniversary, Good Friday is the day we celebrate that love.  It is a good day.

                       I love you!  Happy Easter ! Good Friday ! it is the same.   May Jesus be praised !