What I remember about Good Friday from year to year is that it rains. I do not remember any Good Friday that was bright and full of sunshine. Typically, each Good Friday has been grey and wet, and as per usual, today is Good Friday… and it is raining again. This always speaks to me, and makes me pay close attention to what yearns to be known.
I find great comfort in the rain on such a somber day, just like I find comfort in rain on funeral days. It feels like God shows up and cries with us. Soaked to the skin in God’s tears… that helps me grieve… that helps me feel not so alone with what I must bear. And now, all these many years since that violent day when Jesus died, I still find my face wet as the rain falls down.
Pretty much, I boycott Lent. Life is hard enough to try and drudge through weeks of feeling miserable about myself and life in general. I also gave up Maundy Thursday and any form of a Good Friday Service. I think Jesus is okay with this. I think Jesus would be thankful if we would all let him off the cross. Too many of us focus on the brutality of that when the ultimate message was about life. When I die, I hope my death isn’t the focus of my living! I hope how I live, how I love, how I seek to be more alive and more loving are what people carry in their hearts after I am gone.
But today, I will remember that Jesus walked this earth, and that he willingly died living true to his convictions. His convictions were always about love. He wanted us to love each other, to be forgiving, to stand up for those who are abused and lost and broken. He taught us to take care of children, to embrace the outcast, to give more than we receive. He roamed around in sandals, didn’t own a house or car, lived close to the earth. He believed in the power of simplicity and gentility and compassion. He wanted us to know, deep inside of our beings, that we are loved by God and that nothing can separate us from that love… even death cannot part us from love.
And I think the rain comes every year on Good Friday to remind us that Jesus is still waiting for us to come to our senses. He is still praying we will show up for the sick. He is still praying that we will decide to stop shooting. He is still praying for us to prioritize our time and money in ways that bless. He is still praying we will remember how we came to this earth… so fresh and innocent and wet with the dew of heaven. All is not lost. We need not fear or despair. Jesus, the beloved Son of God, still yearns for us to remember that we are all children of God who each carry sparks of the Divine within us. Jesus still prays we find our way, not so much to the foot of the cross, but to the barriers that keep us from the fullness of loving, abundant lives.
When I was a young girl, I learned a song about the rain in church choir. I forgot it for a time, but in my new faith tradition, it showed up in the hymn book. How precious the many ways God pours out love.
“Joy Is Like The Rain” by Miriam Therese Winter 1965
I saw raindrops on my window. Joy is like the rain.
Laughter runs across my pain, slips away and comes again.
Joy is like the rain.
I saw clouds upon a mountain. Joy is like a cloud.
Sometimes silver, sometimes gray, always sun not far away.
Joy is like a cloud.
I saw Christ in wind and thunder. Joy is tried by storm.
Christ asleep within my boat, whipped by wind yet still afloat.
Joy is tried by storm.
I saw raindrops on the river. Joy is like the rain.
Bit by bit the river grows, till all at once it overflows.
Joy is like the rain.
May your Good Friday hold out to you… messages of peace, encouragement to grow deeper in your love of God, and the blessing of rain that helps the flowers grow.