The One Where Love Went Missing.........

"Olive Press"  by Del Parson

Today, we sit on the cusp of celebrating the most miraculous moment in history.

However, before we can truly celebrate, we need to grieve.

So, let's picture ourselves on the Eve of Passover.

Jesus has just been through a "spiritual olive press."

(Garden of Gethsemane - the "oil press")

The soldiers will soon come to arrest Him.

Judas, the betrayer, will be in the center of their midst.

And, the man who lived, walked, slept, ate beside Jesus for three years...

...a man Jesus loved...

...this man will betray LOVE.

(olive press in Israel)

It's unimaginable, right?

But, try.

Tomorrow when you wake up, consider this thought.

Make it a mental exercise with an intention to eventually get to a place of AWE.

Think about that moment in history, before the joy of Resurrection, when LOVE died.

When, all of a sudden, the world was absent of LOVE;

Because LOVE hung on a cross...

Love was buried in a borrowed grave.

Love left earth....

Love gave Himself...

LOVE sacrificed.

That's what LOVE Does.

LOVE gives.

LOVE surrenders.

LOVE lays EVERYTHING on the altar...

...a sacrificial lamb...

...always thinking about The Other.

Think about this sentence again:  Love left earth....

For three days the world was void of LOVE.

I can hardly fathom what those three days were like...

But, it had to be a dark season --- the darkest of all...

A heavy presence of evil...

Uncontained hate...

Jeering...

Mocking...

Scoffing.

How frightening that must have been.

That time when Evil thought it had won.

When all of hope seemed lost.

That time when LOVE went missing.

Let yourself feel the absence.

Let yourself be heavy-hearted.

Allow yourself a day or two of grief.

A day or two of numbness.

A day or two of shock and unprecedented sorrow.

Wonder with those who had walked so closely in the Rabbi's dust: Would LOVE ever return? 

What would come next for them?

How would they move forward?

Why, God?

What now, God?

Those would be normal thoughts cycloning around in heart and soul.

But....

WAIT FOR IT...

Sunday would arrive.

The Sun/Son would rise.

Sunrise on the Sea of Galilee

The earth would awaken to a New Dawn.

A New Era.

The Same LOVE with Some New Power.

Resurrection Power.

(a garden tomb in Jerusalem)

Resurrected LOVE!

Because of that Blessed Easter...

We are in AWE of Ever-Present LOVE!

I STAND, I STAND in AWE OF YOU!

Holy God to whom all praise is due...

I stand in awe of You!