h2odevos encores 040712 Coming Spring

"The heavy load that I carry

My treasure and my loss

I weary and I fall, who will hold me?

Longer than shadows

Closer than emptiness

Oh...mighty this love

Oh...mighty this love

It led me to peace at the river

It woke me in the rage of the wind

Called me up to the mountain, 

back through the valley again

Patient in winter's sting

Restless as coming spring

Oh...mighty this love

Oh...mighty this love"

Mighty this Love by Peter Mayer

We left the church in darkness last night with the words echoing in our hearts, "It is finished."

There are pictures from the BBC which review how Christians around the world observed Good Friday.  (Note: Some of them are quite graphic -- parental review is important.)  Click HERE.

I love the line, "longer than shadows...closer than emptiness." There are times of shadows and emptiness. As we go about our routines today on this Holy Saturday, it is quite natural to feel a variety of feelings. There is the reality of being "stung" by death. Maybe you have recently gone through an experience where you had a loved one die. Or perhaps someone close to you is currently in the process of dying (in actuality, all of us qualify for that particular status -- some of us are just more cognizant of it than others).

My heart and soul are comforted by the words of St. Paul that come into the shadows and emptiness of Holy Saturday:

"What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written,

'For your sake we are being killed all day long;

   we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.' 

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31-38)

The good news is "nothing can separate us from God's love!"

If you have some free time on your hands today (and probably also some Easter egg dye on your hands), check out the following link:  www.paaseastereggs.com/index.htm

Until tomorrow,

Peace,

rtg