I had been challenged to meditate on the cross; to stand as it were with those women looking up at their suffering Lord. But how could I do this? I who try to shut out anything involving torture or abuse because of the nightmares that follow.
But God has
been teaching me to come to that secret place where he has promised always to
be there for me. So now, with his arm around me I ask,
‘Father, how
could you ignore the pleading of your Son in the garden, and even on the
cross?’
Gently God
took me back to the counsel of the godhead before the foundation of the earth.
Even then they had known of the great rebellion that would arise, and they had known
that a yet greater cure must be given. He reminded me how it was the Son, in
whom was all their delight, who had stepped forward to say, ‘I, I will go.’
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we had agreed together, and so now, I had to be
deaf to the cry of my Beloved. I had to turn my face away.
‘Yes, I
could have saved my Son, but……
I looked
into those eyes and through them deep into the heart of the Father and it is
helping me to understand.
Father, You
so loved the world, so loved us, you and me, that You did not spare your Son,
your only Son, your Beloved, so that we, believing, accepting, might receive
this wonderful gift of life.
Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, thank you for all that you suffered for us that we might come
home to you. Hallelujah!
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THE FATHER
HEART
The sheep
are straying from the fold –
The Father-
heart cannot withhold
The price to
pay to turn them back.
But, who,
who will go?
‘Twas You,
Beloved, my only Son
Who counts
the cost that must be done
To turn
these lost rebellious ones.
‘I, Father,
I will go.’
And so, He
left his Father’s throne
For virgin’s
womb, carpenter’s home –
Rejection,
pain, the cross, the tomb.
Father, you
let him go?
Yes, child,
I gave my only Son
For you,
who’d spurned my Holy One –
Deserving of
death, that you might turn.
My arms are
open! Come!
