Good Friday

I hesitate to say "Happy Good Friday" today because, in one sense, it doesn't express the awesome gravity of the occasion.  We say Merry Christmas - and we are merry because of the celebration of a Savior's miraculous, humble birth into our cruel, screwed-up world.  That somehow seems to fit.  But happy?

And then I remember this.

 

Yep.  It's a good, happy day.

I read a bit of the Jesus Storybook Bible to my students in class yesterday.  If you're a kid, or if you have kids, or if you've ever been a kid, you should own a copy of this book.

Yep, it's that good.

Here's a bit of what I read to my students yesterday.  I can't think of a better way to express the overwhelming amazingness of what this day represents in a language that speaks to kids and kids-at-heart alike.

"God was going to pour into Jesus' heart all the sadness and brokenness in people's hearts.  He was going to pour into Jesus' body all the sickness in people's bodies.  God was going to have to blame his son for everything that had gone wrong... Jesus was going to take on the punishment for all the wrong things anybody had ever done, or would ever do... It would crush Jesus."  

"The full force of the storm of God's fierce anger at sin was coming down.  On his own Son.  Instead of his people.  It was the only way God could destroy sin, and not destroy his children whose hearts were filled with sin."

Happy Good Friday!

*All quotes and illustrations are from The Jesus Storybook Bible,
written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago