Good Friday

In Southern Illinois we have been having Thunderstorms for about a week and a half. I am usually a large proponent of thunderstorms, but I don't think I actually experienced t-storms like the ones we have been getting. Usually these storms will come in and storm for about an hour and then move on. These storms have come and come and come.

On Good Friday it stormed all night. The Thunder was shaking the house, the wind was ghostly, and the lightning light the house up when the power went out. As I was lying in bed and listening to this storm I thought of the cross. I reflected on the feeling of the cross as sleep evaded me.

While the cross was interrupted human history, we often forget that all of Creation was influenced by the cross. As I was lying in bed I was thinking of the moments after Christ's last breath. In Matthew the scene is mind altering. The earth and the rocks shake, and the dead bodies that have been within the earth are resurrected and walk, or float themselves, into the city.

None of the other Gospels speak of the natural implications of the Cross. Matthew is the only writer that mentions the natural reaction to the death of Christ. As the thunder was knocking on my roof I was reminded of the all encompassing redemption that was intended for the world.