Favorite Things
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These Are A Few of My Favorite Things: A Meditation On Passion Week
Maria sang these words apparently when she felt bad or sad about life situations: Raindrops on roses/And whiskers on kittens/Bright copper kettles/ and warm woolen mittens/Brown paper packages tied up with strings/These are a few of my favorite things/Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels/Doorbells and sleigh bells/And schnitzel with noodles/Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings/These are a few of my favorite things/Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes/Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes/Silver-white winters that melt into springs/These are a few of my favorite things…
Passion week with its Good Friday leading up to Resurrection Sunday are my favorite things I remember all year long. The week Jesus died is the most remembered and celebrated in history, second to none. While Christmas has been commercialized, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday still resist! It is the week of the wondrous cross and the vacated tomb. For billions of us it is the most sacred week in history. We call it Holy Week! It is the week God showed up as never before and never since.
In Colossians 3:1-2 Paul admonishes us to “set our hearts and minds on things above” where Christ rules his creation with goodness and love. In Philippians 4:8 we are told to think on these things: Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. On Good Friday and Holy Week, it would be good if all of the KNCSB family joined together and set our minds and hearts above in prayer. Pray that Holy Week will be a time of repentance and joy in our nation.
Passion Week: It’s the time when the Prince of glory died. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). “And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on His (Sacred) head, and arrayed him in a purple robe…” “Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him.” No wonder he countered with “forgive them for they know not what they do.” Think on these things.
Passion Week: It’s a time when the curtain was torn. The final reveal of the true nature of God is Love, willing only good for humanity at the sacrifice of himself. “O the deep, deep love of Jesus, Vast, Unmeasured, Boundless, Free! Rolling like a mighty ocean over me, underneath me, all around me, is the current of your love.” It is the time when “sorrow and love flow mingled down”. Think on these things.
Passion Week: The time of history when the fountain of creation “filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood loose all their guilt stains.” “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. Think on these things.
Passion Week: The time hope is reborn, faith increases, scales fall from our eyes, and we see as never before. Resurrection. Life! It is the season we heartily sing: Jesus, lover of my soul, into your bosom let me fly. I take refuge in you. On you I hang my helpless soul. Support and comfort me as no one else can. Hide me, O my savior, hide, till the storm of life is past… You, Christ are all I want, more than all in you is found. Cheer the fallen, lead the faint, heal the sick and lead the blind…” Think on these things.