When I survey....

I went to FoG this evening which is our Focus on God service at church on a Sunday evening at 7pm. It involves modern worship songs, a time of reflection and a DVD and then creative prayer stations where we can either direct prayer into particular situations or just be still and wait on God and I found it very moving. Our silver cross on the alter was topped with a small crown of thorns and I was captivated by it as we revisited the events of Good Friday with a reading from The Message. As the words were spoken, I kept thinking about the images from this film-clip, which have stayed with me ever since I watched it. I was thinking about all the people who, Christ-like, have laid down their lives for others.

The most unbearable sentence I think that Christ ever exclaimed for me, as it probably is for many Christians, is when he shouts "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" It is at that point that I feel quite overwhelmed by the fact that my sin bore down upon Christ at that point and left him so bereft of his father. Words can not express the emotions that this part of the story expose. This is Christ in his most painful moment. The Father's momentary neglect of his Son because of his love for his Son and us is difficult to contemplate. It constitutes a very uncomfortable moment.

Thanks to God these are not his final words and instead they are the ones where he commends his spirit into his Father's hands. They are 'at one' again. I find it just astonishing that I need never fear going through this rejection. That Jesus did this for me and you is just staggeringly awesome. I can not do anything, no matter how terrible, to cut me off from the love of God. This is what our saviour secured for us. In the Daily Office, we make use of Psalm 51:11 and 'Cast me not away from your presence,and take not your Holy Spirit from me'. But really we can rest secure that this will never happen if we believe in what Christ achieved for us at Calvary.