The Cup

Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane,"O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done."

I never saw this before.
God could have taken the cup away without Jesus drinking it.
But, for Jesus, this particular cup would not pass away from Him
UNLESS He drank it.
He drank it
and the cup was removed from Him once He drank it.

Today, I told God,
"I don't want Rosalee to have to drink this cup.
I don't want her to go through this.
Take this cup from her."

But the cup is hers.
Her name is on it.
It is hers alone to bear.
Others have their own cups to drink.
The cups have all come from the same
manufacturer, but have some
differences that distinguish them.
It is my cup to watch her drink her cup,
and not be able to spare her of this sorrow.

The promise is almost hidden in His words,
but it is there.
"...if this cup cannot pass away from Me
unless I drink it..."
I believe there is a promise
that if we drink our cups
the cup will pass away from us.

There are different ways
to drink from the cup of grief,
someone once told me.
You can sip from it slowly,
putting it down between sips,
taking your time.
Or you can gulp it
and drink it down quickly.
Or you can sip from it sometimes
and gulp from it other times.
But either way,
the cup has to be drunk.

How long will it take
to drink this cup
and have it pass from us?

How did Jesus embrace
the cup He wanted to reject?

What if He had refused
to drink it?

He dreaded it
but at least He knew some of the glory
that would come from His drinking...

We dread it
and we can only hope for
at least some kind of glory
to come from our drinking...

And still I pray," Take this cup from her...
Surely there's been some mistake."