April 2, 2010
 
DEVOTION: Our Spiritual Temple
 
By Beth Bondurant
 
Good Friday patterns for us the meaning of God's unconditional love. Pictured on the cross of Golgotha is God's plan to overcome evil with good.
 
Described in the last words of our dying Savior is the way we disconnect from the power of anger... resentment... pain and death... "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
 
Represented in the act of the followers as they gently lower the lifeless body and prepare it for the grave depicts the words.. "O grave where is the victory... O death... where is the sting."
 
God's love overcomes... God's power of redemption and renewal comes in the design of this day for there is no power greater than God's mercy and compassion.
 
The road is not easy. There is so much hatred and separation.. hostility and greed... sin and degradation, yet even now, we are empowered to live in newness both on earth and in heaven.
 
Our spiritual template has sketched the way for us... "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
 
O God... how can I forgive You for all the suffering in the world. How can I forgive others for the things they do to me. How can I forgive myself for the way I treat others.
 
Our spiritual template depicts "the way, the truth and the life"... in the new covenant to "love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love one another"... the way to God's compassionate covenant is designed in these words..."Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".
 
YES... it is devastating to see the one we love hanging on a cross.... being plummeted with whips and thorns and other forms of torture... THIS SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BE!
 
Surely God could have designed a better template for our well being.
 
Draw near to the cross... "and see these things that have come to pass". Listen again to the words of reconciliation and wellness... "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"... and let your heart be empowered by God's unconditional love.