Good Friday

Some of the great symbols of our faith have been sadly misused in history, but this doesn’t make them any less important.

My mother observed Lent and always wore all black to church on Good Friday. One time, shortly before we left the house, I asked her why. 

“Today is kind of like remembering Jesus’ funeral. Of course, we know he’s alive and waiting for us in heaven, but first he had to die.”

As a child who’d already attended several family funerals, the connection of the dark clothes and those memories made a stark impression on me of the early disciples’ emotions and seriousness of Jesus’ sacrifice.