Did 'er Such Joy and Sorrow Meet...

Been going through some old sketches lately, and found this. It's an old fav that I drew sitting in an old church in San Gimignano Italy. This sculpture was at the front of the church, and it was only dimly lit so that most of what I could see was the outline. I did my best to fill in the details as I saw and pondered the beauty of the figure. They don't allow much light into the church because it houses some of the oldest frescoes in the world. But I loved what I saw... It seemed so real. It was as if Jesus had just looked up to heaven and with His last dying breath said "It is finished," and "Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit." It's one of my favorite parts in the New Testament... when Jesus looks down on the people mocking and hating him as he was in agony on the cross and said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." I often wonder if I would have been in that crowd, heart rent in horror and despair as I watched Jesus dying, or exultant in the death of an innocent man. Either way... Jesus still died for me.

And lately I have been overwhelmed by how good God is to me. Not only is life amazing, but it has been made so because Of Jesus Christ, who died for me and gave me worth.

It's funny to me how people tell you that you need to like yourself. That somehow, your view of yourself is the one that matters. If that's okay, it should be okay to dislike myself, right? For a long time I saw very little to like. I saw someone who wasn't at all what society would look at and give much thought to. But people... that's not the point. Society isn't where my (or your) value comes from. Jesus died on a cross because He loved me. Because He loves you. That's the only reason I have ever felt that I have true worth. And because of that realization, I can stop worrying about my own issues and get down to loving others and sharing that joy with them. Sharing with them that they are loved by someone who died so that they could know that they were so loved.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Good news is, that cross is empty, as is the tomb in which He was buried. He died, but in doing so conquered the death that all of humanity was meant to suffer, so that we could be raised again to live with Him forever.

Best. News. Ever.