Good(bye) Friday

Bob and Dad early 1940's, Logan Utah

Good Friday.

What a dumb day to die...

That's something I thought just hours after saying a final good bye to my Dad, Easter weekend , a year ago. Not because it was Good Friday but, because I realized that there would most often be two days a year associated with his death, Good Friday and the actual date....Nice, just the thing I want to remember twice a year....

I can't believe (almost) a year has passed, since the Good Friday we said good bye, but time, simply moves on. Grant took me away this weekend to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary (a week from tomorrow) and it was lovely. Spending Friday with dear friends, in a beautiful place made for a happy day. My heart at times felt the pains of grief, I can't deny that but I was quickly reminded that I am loved and have dear friends and a not too shabby husband that ease that heart ache, mostly without even knowing it.

Then today...
We caught Church in Port Alberni our old home ward, on our way home from Ucluelet.  One of the speakers quoted one of my favourite talks of all time. Sunday Will Come as part of his talk.

On that Friday the Savior of mankind was humiliated and bruised, abused and reviled.

It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow that gnawed at the souls of those who loved and honored the Son of God.

I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest.

But the doom of that day did not endure.

The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind......

 

Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.

 

 

As I have had a year to reflect on the Good Friday we said goodbye...yes that day felt earth shattering, overwhelming and devastatingly lonely but..... We stand here a year later.... stronger than before, sad hearts buoyed up with faith that we will once again see my Dad again and that that goodbye on Good Friday was only for now. Sunday will come.

 

I am thankful for the lessons of Fridays and oh so grateful for the blessings of Sundays.

 

Dad, I love you. Until we meet again.