Easter... I've wondered how God celebrates Easter every year... when we start packing our bags, often not making a plan to fit in the most important event in our Christian faith, and we buy the hot-cross buns and the easter eggs and the drinks... and we prepare to rest and forget to pack the Bible...
Or we spend the Thursday night in solitude, contemplating the last hours of Christ, which we saw so vividly depicted in "The Passion of Christ" and we cry as we think about what Jesus went through. And on Sunday morning we smile, and praise God that satan has been defeated and has no hold over our lives anymore...
And then I wonder, what is God thinking...
I'm sure there is a moment of sadness, when Father and Son reflects on that moment where Jesus called out "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?". That moment when the perfect trinity unity was broken. And that is what hell is - a place where God is not.
I'm sure there is a moment where God the Father, holds His Son's hand when He remembers the shame and ridicule and pain inflicted by those He created to be His children. I'm sure sometimes They remember the taunts and the spitting and the desertion by those He thought loved him. They can still hear the voice of Peter, which too often sounds like mine, denying that he ever knew that man, that Jesus. I think God even sees my hand, and yours, so often driving those nails into the hands and feet of our Jesus.
I think maybe for a moment, God reflects on Mary and the women crying at the cross. My tears flow into theirs. Maybe Jesus remembers the pain and scandal, He never wanted his mother to go through. Maybe He reflects on asking his disciple to take care of His mom, His brethren, His flock. His voice resounds even into this time. I'm sure there is a moment when He sadly remembers the weakness, the fear, the man with the silver in his hand. I wonder what we sometimes would ask in return for His head?
But then, I know God remembers that His Son's sacrifice, brought us home. I'm sure they smile at the thought of having us reconciled with God. I know that Jesus thinks that even if the nails were not there to keep Him nailed to the cross, His love would have kept Him there. And I know for sure, that even if it was just you or me, that had to be bought by His blood, He would have done it anyway. I believe that although somewhere the memory of descending to hell and the forces of darkness chastisising Him for every sin and iniquity of all of mankind, remains in His mind, His love covers it, wipes it out. And that if He had to choose, to buy back those that the Father has given Him, He would go to hell and back again, and again. I see a great celebration in heaven. A celebration of the life, death and resurrection of Christ, a celebration of God's triumph over Satan, a celebration every time when someone finally gets it - that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so that we can LIVE!
I wonder about The Father and The Son and the Spirit and what they are thinking when they see our feeble efforts to try and understand exactly what really happened then. The magnitude of the perfect Son of Man, but also the Son of God, on the cross, for the sins of the world, at the hands of satan and his followers. The moment of truth, of God dying to save us from our sin. The moment of triumph, when God overcomes the canyon of sin, death and destruction and buys us back with His Son's blood. My mind can barely comprehend the basics of such a great love.
But I know that God hears our heart's cry, the Father/Son/Spirit hear our simple prayers of gratitude, God sees our hands reach out to touch His heart and He knows, even in our humanity, that we love Him. That's all He ever wanted.
